One of my students and I just had a very productive conversation about minor chords. Minor chords can be hard, but they’re really neat once you get the hang of them. As I was telling my student, there is a simple way to get to the minor chord from each chord shape (bar, F shape, D shape—you have to know those shapes already for this to make any sense to you. We have an excellent video on vamping if you haven’t branched out into that area yet. 🙂 ).
In the bar chord shape, you lower the note on the second string one fret. (I finger it with my little finger on the 1st string, index on 2nd, ring on 3rd, middle on 4th.)
In the D shape you lower the first and fourth strings one fret. (Little on 1st, ring on 2nd, index on 3rd, middle on 4th.)
In the F shape you lower the third string note one fret. (I flatten out my index to cover the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strings and don’t use my middle at all, leaving little on 1st and ring on 4th.)
Chord stuff often doesn’t make any sense until you’re ready for it, or unless you have a need to use it right away. But at the right time, it will suddenly start to click, and it’s really cool when it does.
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