How Can You Practice the A Major Chord on the Piano?

Discover the notes that are in the A major chord and how to play it on the piano in root position and in both inversions.

Table of Contents

What Notes Make up the A major Chord?

The symbol of the A major chord is A.

The notes of the A chord are A – C# – E.

The A chord is a triad because it has three notes: root (A), major third (C#), and perfect fifth (E).

The picture below shows how to play the notes of the A major chord on the piano in root position:

You can see that the first note from the left is A (the root), the second note is C# (the major third), and the third note is E (the perfect fifth).

Assuming that you are playing the A chord in root position the lowest note is A.

Here is how to remember the notes of the A major chord:

Start from the first note of the chord (the root) that for the A major chord is A.
To find the second note of the chord calculate a major third from the root (C#).
Then to find the third note of the chord calculate the perfect fifth from the root (E).

This applies if you are playing the A major chord in root position.

The 1st inversion of the A chord starts with the note C#.

The picture below shows how to play the notes of the A major chord on the piano in the first inversion:

In the 1st inversion, you shift the root of the A chord (A) up one octave compared to the root position.

The notes of the A chord in the 1st inversion are C# – E – A.

The 2nd inversion of the A chord starts with the note E.

Below you can see how to play the notes of the second inversion of the A major chord on the piano:

In the 2nd inversion, you also shift the third of the A chord (C#) up one octave.

The notes of the 2nd inversion of the A chord are E – A – C#.

The A chord is a triad (a chord with three notes) and it doesn’t have a 3rd inversion because it would be the same as the root position.

The following articles show you how to play other A chords: