The next chord that we're going to learn is the A chord. And I'm going to show you three versions, I'm going to show you the a major chord. I'm going to show you an eighth seventh, and I'm going to show you something called the long a. All three of these versions of the eight chord use the same base pattern for alternating and the monotonic bass. So anyway, the simplest way to play an A chord is just to put your first finger on the second fret and get the fourth, third and second strings. You have the open fifth string, which you can also get in their country blues guitar, most of the time we're going to be thumping on that string that's going to be one of our bass strings.
So this is an A major, first finger, second fret for third and second strings. You can also play it like this And sometimes in country blues, you play it like this. That's more within a seventh. So what I've got is that first finger on those three strings, if I do this, I still got the same three strings, I'm just doing it a little differently. I'll put this shape on the diagrams that I have included this the resources for this lesson, let's just choose the easiest form of the a CT to get started. Now the a major chord, you don't use a whole lot and country blues.
Instead, you're going to use one of the two different versions of that court. So this time, let me go ahead and just show you all three of the chord shapes and then we'll talk about the bass. The next shape is the a seven and this is a chord that you're going to use a lot. And what I've got is the exact same position with my first finger as I did with the a major chord and then I'm going to take my ring finger and put it on the third fret The first string there's an a seven, here's an A, A major, here's an a seven. And then in country blues, a lot of times you're going to use what's called a long a chord. This is quite a stretch.
And if your hands aren't that big, you'll have to work at this I have been lucky to have really long fingers and big hands. So this isn't tough, isn't as tough. And what I do is make the a shape again with my first finger. And this time, I'm going to stretch my pinky to the fifth fret of the first string, which just so happens to be an A. So I've got an open a on the fifth string. And then I've got an A fretted on the first string.
So the whole thing put together. Sounds like that. When you learn songs by Mississippi, john hurt and Robert Johnson and even Mance Lipscomb and lightnin Hopkins guys who played in the key of A, then this, the shape you're going to use quite a bit. So our three eight chord shapes, we got an A major, a seven, and the long a. The bass strings that you're going to use for all three shapes of the A chord are basically the same. Let's start out with like a long a, the alternating bass is going to be a five, four, open fifth string, which is an A and our fourth string, same thing with an A major Same thing with an a set.
And like I mentioned with the E core it's a good way to start practicing the alternating bass is just to sit there and hold a chord shape. And get that bass gone and see if you can keep it steady timing 12341234 and maybe watch television or look at something else while you're doing it and teach yourself to be able to play that thumb or that alternating bass without thinking about it like a machine. So all three forms of the A chord, you're going to use the five for alternating bass most of the time. Now the monotonic just like the open E is pretty simple. Open fifth string with the right hand palm muting the fifth string. And as we get into the songs, we'll apply this and we'll start putting in the treble, strings and all that.
When I get finished here with this chord section, I'm going to show you some practice practice exercises, including a couple of different ways that you can practice using the alternative bass and then mixing in some treble notes. Get started playing this kind of guitar. So we have the a major. We have the a seven and we have the long