A major is, for most people, a simple chord to play.
It is usually played using the 1st finger on the fourth string, the
2nd (middle) finger on the third string and the 4th (ring) finger on the
second string.
A was the first chord I leaned to play, and I was disappointed with how hard I found it to finger properly. To fit three fingers in a row, they had to be at a wild angle:
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| | 1 | | |
| | | 2 | |
| | | | 3 |
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My first finger was so far away from the 2nd fret that it never made a 'clean' sound no matter
how hard I tried. Luckily, I tried
other chords, and discovered that they were comparatively easy - so I
didn't give up all hope, or the guitar.
The next day, I was at work complaining about my difficulty with A, and my boss suggested that I try an
alternative fingering. It's difficult to explain without a guitar or a diagram in front of you, so...
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| | 2 1 3 |
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|--|--|--|--|--|
The idea is to cross your middle finger over the top of your first finger. Although it sounds
really difficult to do, your middle finger is, usually at least, longer than your first finger
so it feels quite natural. With my comically large hands and fingers, I have found that it makes A much easier to play.
stewacide points out that three fingers are even harder to fit when making an A-major shaped barre chord further down the neck. His alternative is to play the chord with just one finger fretting the three strings at the second fret, while using that same finger to mute the high E (which is not needed of course, as there's already a low E in the chord).