Lesson 4 - Minor Chords
You will need to have taken a look at the previous lessons in order to understand these excercises as they use terminology that you may not have come across yet.
Its worth refering back to it every now and again to jog your memory.
And Remember, take the lessons at your own speed, there is no rush, good luck!
Whats involved in this lesson
In this lesson we are going to learn some minor chords; A minor, D minor and E minor. These chords will be used often in your playing and it is important you get to grips with them before moving on to more complicated things.
Contents:Useful Information
A Minor
D Minor
E Minor
Summary
Useful Information
Now we shall look at minor chords. Minor chords sound different to major chords. Major tends to sound happy. And minor has the opposite effect; sounding sad. As you know major chords can be written without the 'major' part. So when A is written on its own, it is assumed to be major. To identify a minor chord, a lower-case 'm' is put in front of the chord. The first chord we will look at is Am (A minor).
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A minor
So grab your guitar and get ready. Place your first finger on string B, fret 1. Your second finger on string D, fret 2. Your third finger is placed on string G, fret 2. Remember the cross (x), this means do not play the low E string.
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D minor
To play Dm (D minor), place your first finger on the high E string, 1st fret. Your second finger is placed on the G string, 2nd fret. And your third finger is placed on the B string, 3rd fret. Strings E and A are not played.
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E minor:
Em is an easier one, place your first finger on the A string, 2nd fret. Now place your second finger on the D string, 2nd fret. Play all the strings.
I haven't gone into as much detail as I did in the previous chord lessons. Hopefully you should already know the tips for perfecting your chords.
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So, to summarise:
- Can you hear the difference between the minor and major chords? Keep changing between them and try to teach your ears to pick up the difference.
- Practise the chords and try to avoid dead notes.
After a bit of practise you shouldn't have much trouble with these. So when you're done, take a look at lesson 5.
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