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 |