Common Minor Chords
In most of the music that I have played, there are four common minor chords for guitar. This does not mean that there are not more chords. It merely means that I have seen them fewer than the four here. Minor chord are usually indicated by putting a lower case “m” after the chord letter.
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E Minor (Em) Chord
The first of the common minor chords for guitar is the E Minor chord. Of all the minor chords, I think I’ve seen this one more often in the things that I have played. The E minor chord is almost identical to the E chord, but an open G string. So both E strings, the G, and the B strings are all open and the A and D strings are played on the second fret.
A Minor (Am) Chord
If you can play an E chord, you can already play the next of the common minor chords for guitar. The A Minor finger positioning is identical to the E chord, but with all the fingers moved over one string towards the higher pitched E string. To play the A minor chord, play both E string, and the A string open, the first fret on the B string, and the second fret on the D and G strings.
D Minor (Dm) Chord
Next on the common minor chords for guitar is the D Minor chord. In D Minor, play the higher pithced E string on the first fret, otherwise, the fingering is just like for the D chord, with the D string open, the second fret on the G string, and the third fret on the B string. The A and E strings are not played in this chord variation.
B Minor (Bm) Chord
I hesitated on whether to add this to the common minor chords for guitar list, but it does appear often enough and, if you understand how to do this chord, you can do many similar ones. The basic chord would be to play the higher pitched E string on the second fret, the B string on the third fret, and the G and D strings on the fourth fret. This can be done easily. If you want, though, you can make this a full 6 string chord by using the index finger to bar across all the strings instead of just focusing on the E string.
Remember, this is not all the minor chords you might see, but it is the most common ones and the easiest way to finger them. If you understand how to make these chords, you will be able to make the other ones with only some slight modifications in most cases.
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