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Hip Hop Part Two: E Minor Chord and Four-Note Chords

We've made it to Hip Hop part two, the final section from our stylistic studies.

In this section, we're going to look at:

• Playing an E minor chord: Our first minor shape.
• Playing some four-note chords using four strings.
• Connecting the three chords we've learnt together.

Let's get started!

The Funk Connection

One fun thing about hip hop is that it often samples funk music, with funk guitar playing. It's really common to use a wire pedal, which is what I've got here. It gives the guitar a kind of throaty sound, almost like a voice.

As always, if you don't have this pedal at home, that's totally fine. It's just something we can start to look at in the future as you progress with your guitar playing.

Example One: E Minor Chord

In example one, we're going to look at an E minor chord.

We've learned major chords already (C major and G major), and we tend to think of these major chords as sounding happy, while minor chords are often considered the opposite‚ sad.

How to Play E Minor

To play the E minor chord:

• Use your middle finger (second finger) to play the second fret on the D string.
• All the other strings (G, B, and E) are going to be played open.

Important Technique Note: It's crucial to lift our middle finger up, making sure we're on our fingertip so that our finger doesn't block any of the open strings underneath.

Technique Comparison

I'll play two examples:

• Bad Technique: Not playing on my fingertip, but resting my finger down lazily on the strings.

  • Sound Check: If I pluck through the strings:
    • D rings out clear.
    • G is blocked.
    • B is just about audible.
    • E is blocked.
  • Overall, we're really not hearing the sound of that chord come through.

• Good Technique: Playing right on the fingertip and nice and high so all the strings can ring out clearly.

Practice Exercise

To play this example, we're playing our E minor as a four-beat chord:

• Use a whole note.
• We have four bars of this and will work on strumming through the strings from the D string down.

As always with our chords, try to use a circular motion so that we're not hitting any unwanted strings.

Give that a go on your own, and I'll see you in the backing track!