How to Play the A7 chord on the Guitar

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• Meet the A7 chord
• How to play an A7 chord
• Moveable form: A7 barre chord
• The easiest A7 chord voicing
• Related lessons & courses

    The tricky part with this particular A7 fingering is placing your 2nd finger while holding the 3-note mini-barre. This requires a bit of extra finger strength.

    You should also experiment with your hand position. Some players find that pulling the whole arm a bit to the back helps. But everyone's anatomy is different, so you'll need to figure out how to do this without hurting your hands. With a little patience, you can master this A7 chord voicing!

    A note on "bar chords": The traditional spelling is "barre", but many times you will see it spelled as "bar". So an "A7 bar chord" and an "A7 barre chord" are actually the same thing. Don't let that throw you off 😉.

    This is a barre chord that requires you to fret all 6 strings with the first finger. This makes the A7 barre chord a little tricky, but with a little patience, you can master it.

    Here are a few tips to help you master this tricky fingering faster:

• In the beginning, form the fingering shape slowly. Speed will come later.
• Decide on the order with which you will place your fingers. For example, you can always start with fingers 3-4, then 2, and then place the 1st finger to form the barre. You could also start with the barre instead.
• Be consistent with the decided order. After you build muscle memory, forming the chord will happen automatically and almost instantly. But the muscle memory-building process will take a lot longer if you do this differently every time.
• Place your 1st finger very close to the metal fret. This makes it easier to execute without buzzing. But don't play completely over the fret wire because that will produce a muted sound.

    To use moveable chords effectively, you need to locate the notes on the fretboard really fast. I highly recommend that you get Fretboard Memorization Toolbox. It's a free mini-course that includes fun drills and musical challenges that will help you master the fretboard very quickly.

    Guitar players love shortcuts. A shortcut for easily playing an A7 chord on the guitar is to use the minimal voicing in the diagram below.

    Alternative finger option: In some cases, it might be easier to use fingers 2-3 instead of 1-2 👍.

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