Stop 4 of 6
Minor chords: Am, Em and Dm
From major brightness to minor melancholy, by moving one finger.
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Stop 4 of 6
From major brightness to minor melancholy, by moving one finger.
The forest has sunlit clearings and shady corners. So far you've spent nearly all your time in the clearings: A, D and E are major chords, bright ones. Now you'll explore the shade with three minor chords, Am, Em and Dm, and discover that getting from light to shade takes moving just one note.
Listen to these pairs. In each one you first hear the major chord and then the minor chord on the same root:
Notice how the second of each pair "dims the light"? The chord doesn't become unpleasant or out of tune; it just changes colour: more intimate, more thoughtful, sometimes more dramatic. That's the minor colour.
You know it already, but look at it with new eyes. Place E and lift finger 1: you have Em.
String 3 goes from G♯ (fret 1) to G (open). Alternate the two, strumming four times each, and hear the colour change while your hand barely moves: fingers 2 and 3 are .
In A, string 2 sounds at fret 2 (C♯). In Am, that same string drops to fret 1 (C). Everything else is the same. If you play A with the 2-3-4 fingering, the change is literally moving one finger:
Dm, like D, lives on the four high strings. The note that changes is on string 1: it goes from F♯ (fret 2) to F (fret 1).
Here the fingers reorganise a little, because the new note lands on fret 1 and the index reaches it most comfortably:
The note changes on one string only, even though fingers 1 and 2 swap roles. Keep finger 3 glued to its string during the change and let the other two pivot around it.
You've seen the pattern three times. Put it in a table:
| Major | Note that changes | Minor | Where? |
|---|---|---|---|
| E | G♯ → G | Em | string 3 |
| A | C♯ → C | Am | string 2 |
| D | F♯ → F | Dm | string 1 |
In all three cases the note drops one fret, the smallest distance on the guitar: a . If you label the diagrams by degrees instead of fingers, you'll see that note has a name of its own:
The chords in this stage have three different notes. Calling the root "1", the other two are the third and the fifth. The fifth is the same in major and minor; what changes is the third: in the major chord it's four frets above the root (3) and in the minor, three (♭3). For example, from E to G♯ is four frets; from E to G, three. That's why moving one note by one fret turns major into minor. This three-note structure is called a , and you'll study it in depth in Harmony City. For now, keep the practical idea: same root, one note a fret lower, minor colour.
Telling major from minor by ear is one of the most useful skills you can build: it lets you work out songs and know which chord you're hearing. Some clues:
Try it now. Listen to each chord and decide before reading the answer below:
Answers: 1 = Am (minor), 2 = E (major), 3 = Dm (minor), 4 = A (major).
Pick a pair, strum the major four times and the minor four times, and repeat. Move only what's needed: in E–Em, one finger; in A–Am (with 2-3-4), one finger; in D–Dm, keep finger 3 as an anchor.
As you play, say "major" or "minor" out loud on the first strum of each chord. That links your hand to your ear.
Goal: Alternate each pair (E–Em, A–Am, D–Dm) for 8 bars in a row at 70 BPM, four strums per chord, without stopping.
This progression uses only minor chords. The changes are new: Am → Dm (air change: the whole shape lands at once), Dm → Em (the whole hand travels towards the low strings) and Em → Am (fingers 2 and 3 shift together one string and finger 1 comes in). Do a minute of changes on each pair first if you need to.
Goal: Play Am – Dm – Em – Am 4 times in a row at 60 BPM over the backing without stopping the strum.
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