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Old 07-22-2016, 06:31 PM
jseth jseth is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Oregon... "Heart of the Valley"...
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I agree that all the different ways of playing that "A chord"-shape are useful... really depends upon the song and where I am going next that helps determine which one I use.

For more "Rock and Roll" or Blues tunes, using the edge of my forefinger seems to work best, as it gives me latitude to play the classic Rock/Blues riff; also lets me add other licks to a basic A chord.

Although I have smallish hands and thin fingers, over the 55+ years of playing guitar I now have "flattened" fingertips - actually, they've been like that for 30 years or so! - and I play a whole bunch of chords using only one finger to fret two strings... comes in mighty handy at times, although it makes following my chord changes a bit more difficult for the novice player.

I am VERY partial to maj 9 chords; 13th chords, too... and I love the sound of an A major 9, played with just the D and G string, second fret... technically this would be a sus 2 chord, I believe, because there is no 3rd played... I love it just the same!

So, my advice would be: get a couple shapes absolutely down-pat, realizing that, along the way you will want to be able to play any of them at any time...
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