A

How to play the A Major Chord on your piano or keyboard

From the chord symbol A we get the following information:

• The A chord has the note A as root note
• The A chord is a 3-note chord (a triad)
• The A chord is a major chord

Because A is a 3-note chord it also has 3 inversions:

• Root inversion
• 1st. inversion
• 2nd. inversion

A chord – Root inversion (basic inversion) looks like this: A – C# – E

A chord – 1st. inversion (root note at the top of the chord): C# – E – A

A chord – 2nd. inversion (root note in the middle of the chord): E – A – C#

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A chord – fingering:

Root inversion:

Finger	1	3	5
Note	A	C#	E

1st. inversion:

Finger	1	2	5
Note	C#	E	A

2nd. inversion:

Finger	1	3	5
Note	E	A	C#

A chord – Closely related scales and harmonic functions:

The A chord is the 1st. step in the A major scale

Step	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Chord	A	Bm	C#m	D	E	F#m	G#m(b5)

The A chord is the 4th. step in the D major scale

Step	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Chord	D	Em	F#m	G	A	Bm	C#m(b5)

The G chord is the 5th. step in the D major scale

Step	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Chord	D	Em	F#m	G	A	Bm	C#m(b5)

The A chord is the 3rd. step in the F# minor scale

Step	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Chord	F#m	G#m(b5)	A	Bm	C#m	D	E