Now we're moving on to minor Open Chords. This is our last lesson on chords, so pay close attention.
As you remember from your lessons with Bar Chords, the minor sound is much more sad and somber than the happy major sound.
Lets start with D Minor.
As you remember from your lessons with Bar Chords, the minor sound is much more sad and somber than the happy major sound.
Lets start with D Minor.
Place your index finger on the 1st fret of the high e string, ring finger on the 3rd fret of the B string, middle finger on 2nd fret of the G string, and play the D string open.
Modification #1
Once you have this down, we will once again add to this chord, the same way we did last time with the D major. For the first modification, play the chord like normal but lift your index finger up, like the below photo.
Modification #2:
Now go back to playing the D minor like normal. Then lets alter it by dropping your pinky finger onto the 3rd fret, making sure to keep your index finger on the 1st fret of the high e string behind it (this will come in handy during the exercise at the end).
Alright lets move on to a couple of other minor open chords.
Below is A minor.
Place your index finger on the 1st fret of the B string, ring finger on the 2nd fret of the G string, middle finger on the 2nd Fret of the D string, and play the A and high e strings open.
Modification #1:
Now lets modify this chord in a similar fashion. Try removing your index finger to play the B string open, while keeping your ring and middle finger on the second frets of the G and D strings respectively like below.
Modification #2:
Now hold down the chord like normal, but drop your pinky finger on the 3rd fret of the B string, keeping your index finger on the 1st fret of the B string behind it like below.
Now we'll move on to the E minor open chord.
Place your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the A string, ring finger on the 2nd fret of the D string, and play every other string open.
Modification #1:
We'll keep this one simple with our modification, by dropping our pinky finger onto the 2nd fret of the D string, like below.
What you have learned with these chord modifications are what we call suspended chords. I'm not going to go too deep into music theory in this course, but just know that you will see these types of chords very often in popular music. Suspended chords alter one note in the chord (the 3rd) by moving up or down the neck in one direction. When you move up in the key, you would see it as a sus4 (suspended 4th), and when you move down it would be a sus2 (suspended 2nd). These chords are very simple and by now you should have no problem playing them when you encounter them. If you ever do want to learn more theory, or just need clarification with any of the material in this course, I can teach you this in one on one lessons.
Lets move on to an exercise with the above chords we worked on.
Start looking at this exercise in measures- in short each of the boxes you see in this tab (four total) is a measure. For the first measure you should be playing the D minor with the modifications we made earlier. The second measure contains an A minor with the modifications. Third measure shows the E minor, and the fourth measure goes back to A minor.
Keep each chord position held until it's time to move on to the next. As you begin to learn more songs you will encounter many broken chord progressions similar to this one. It's important that when you do, you hold down the chord positions in advance. This will make it much easier to play and allow you to transition smoothly from note to note.
At this point you need to be googling guitar tabs of your favorite songs and start learning them. Personally I recommend the website www.songsterr.com (although I believe you have to pay to use it on a phone, on a computer it's free), www.ultimate-guitar.com is another great one. Go on these sites and start learning some songs so you can see how your favorite artists are applying these techniques in their music. I get that you may not be an expert yet, and it may be intimidating to start learning songs, but you should try. Pick some easy songs with just a few chord progressions (most pop, rock, and country music would fall into this).
Now you have learned all of the most commonly used power chords, bar chords, and open chords. Are there still other chords out there? Yes. But the chords you have learned make up 95% of all that you will see in popular music, and you have the tools to learn those in which you aren't familiar with.
In the next exercise we will be moving on to scales. This may sound daunting, but if you want to develop as a guitarist you will need to learn some basic scales. Don't worry. They're easy ;)