The A chord
Three fingers on adjacent strings, second fret. Easier to play than to make sound interesting. The A (A - C# - E) is a major triad, which is why it sounds the open arrival point of a phrase. Writers pick it for a singalong opening, and you can find it across pop, folk, country and rock. On guitar the chord sits in barre-chord territory for most useful keys; on piano it stacks straight up under the right hand. The page below covers the voicings worth memorising, the theory, the progressions where the A earns its keep, and the records that lean on it.
Hear the A in the chord builder →Voicings for A
Common ways to grip the A on guitar and piano. Guitar diagrams read low E to high E left-to-right; an × means muted, an open circle above the nut means an open string. Filled dots are fretted notes.
Guitar , full chord shapes
CAGED-derived voicings for A across the neck. Pick the shape closest to where your hand already sits.
Guitar , triad shapes
Three-note triad shapes on each string set, shown moving up the neck. Light textures for arpeggios, pop layering and chord-melody work.
Piano voicings
Root position and inversions. The bass note matters: each inversion changes how the chord sits under a melody.
The theory behind A
Progressions that use A
Short progressions that put the A to work. Each one is shown in a different key so you can pick the one that suits your singer.
The four-chord engine behind a thousand pop hits. The lift from I to V opens the chorus, vi pulls down into feeling, IV walks back toward home.
→ Build this in the chord builderThe four-chord engine behind a thousand pop hits. The lift from I to V opens the chorus, vi pulls down into feeling, IV walks back toward home.
→ Build this in the chord builderThe four-chord engine behind a thousand pop hits. The lift from I to V opens the chorus, vi pulls down into feeling, IV walks back toward home.
→ Build this in the chord builderHeroic minor four-chord. The descent from i to VI to III gives the verse weight, VII slingshots back to the tonic. The Andalusian cousin of the pop axis.
→ Build this in the chord builderSongs that feature A
Real records where this chord does structural work. No lyrics quoted, just the title and artist so you can pull up a copy and hear it in context.
- Three Little Birds by Bob Marley. A as the resolving chord of the verse.
- Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton. A as the bright opening chord.
- Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. A as the V chord in the chorus.
Related chords
Chords a step away from the A in the songwriting circle, the natural neighbours when you want a substitution.
Keys where A lives
The keys where this chord turns up diatonically. Open any key page for the full set of progressions that lean on it.
Related references
Other ways to put the A to work across the reference library.
More songwriting tools
Got the chord but still wrestling with the lyric? Find the right rhyme in RhymeForge, or break a writer's block with the unexpected word-pair generator in CollisionLab. Need to map a full progression? The chord builder on the home page is where the A fits into context. All free, no signup.
About the chord builder
The Undercover Zest chord progression builder is a free interactive tool that maps every diatonic and borrowed chord in every key. Click a Roman numeral to hear it, drag chords into a progression, then audition voicings, inversions and tensions until the song clicks.
This page is a static reference for the A. For interactive playback, voice-leading hints and substitution suggestions, open the chord builder above.