Understanding Chords: A Guide to E Minor and A Minor

Now, in order to play the chords of this song, if you want to vamp along, you'll need to learn a new chord.

Overview of E Minor

• We've had this chord in some of the other songs, but it's been so short that we haven't really had to think about it.
• Down the Road has a quick E minor that you barely notice, and so does Cumberland Gap.
• However, in Foggy Mountain Breakdown, you get a nice long E minor.

That's an E minor.

A Minor Shape

Let's talk about how to play the A minor shape. If you want to play the chords from your basic F shape, you'll need to make one little change.

Chord Structure

If you know about chord structure, you'll understand that you have to change the third of the chord.

• You have to lower the third of the chord by one note to make A major into A minor.
• I don't want to get into the details of that right now because we just don't have that much time, but if you already understand some of it, you'll know what's happening.

Chord Fingering

Just knowing the chord will help. Here's how it works:

• This is an F shape, but I'm playing a G chord.
• I'm going to move my middle finger note down by barring across with my index finger.

Major to Minor Transition

• From this shape, the D shape, I have to move two notes down. This means I'll have to re-finger the whole thing, and it looks like this: minor.
• From the bar shape, I have to move this note down. However, I can't use a whole bar now, so I have to change the way I finger it. It looks like this: Major, minor.

Basic Chords Overview

• There are only three basic chords.
• We have three basic minor chords.

Major and Minor Relationships

There's a practical thing you need to know about major chords and minor chords:

• You don't typically go from G major to G minor; you usually go from G major to E minor.
• This is called the relative minor because it is relative. They share many notes and have a very similar sound.

Example Transition

• If this is G major, its relative minor is E minor. You can find the relative minor by moving that finger.
• When transitioning from D to B minor from the bar shape, you just have to change it.

You keep that bar and add two notes.

• For G minor, transitioning from G to E minor up here looks like this.
• We also had that down the neck.

Conclusion

Knowing these relationships is handy because that's what you'll be doing most often when transitioning between a major chord and a minor chord. That's where you'll find it.