Hi Guys my names Andy
And in this lesson we are learning to play our three minor chords
the E minor, A minor, and D minor
Now these minor chords by their name actually
sound sad, so they are not the cherriest chords in the world to learn
but if music is an expression of emotion
we kinda need the happy major chords and minor sad chords
and if they sound sad you know that you're doing the correctly
so this is our first E minor chord
straight away we can hear that that sounds distinctly sad
and if it does, your playing it correctly
if it doesnt and it sounds like this
then this string underneath your fingers
isnt ringing out
so we have to lift these fingers and keep them on the tips
to make sure that all these strings ring out
and then we have our first finger at the second fret at the 5th string
middle finger directly underneath it
on the 4th string
and then all the other strings ring out
by keeping a space here, and not pressing too hard on the bottom of the guitar
infact, if we can keep a gap here for all our chords, they will sound much sweeter
our second chord, A minor
is the exact same chord shape as the first chord we learnt, the E major
so the first chord we learnt was this
and if we move that down a string
it becomes an A minor
and that sounds like this
so we can hear again that distinctly sad sound
but its a very familiar chord shape
so that A minor chord one more time
just to cover all the bases we have
our first finger on the second fret of the second string
so, string 1, string 2
middle finger 4th string of the second fret
and then your third finger comfortably underneath it
and strum from string 5
these two minor chords are easily the most common
in songs
and to use with the other chords that we've covered so far
so to change between them
we can actually keep that middle finger down
and go to the A minor chord by moving your first finger
and adding your third finger
and if youve got used to the anchor finger idea
from earlier lessons in this course
this will start to be familiar to you now
however it will take a bit of discipline
as any new chord change or skill on guitar does at first
the final chord is the D minor chord
now this is quite rare to happen in songs
and it also is much tougher then the other ones
but its ideal to get a bit more of a stretch in your hand
and it is the other chord we have available to us at this level to be able to play songs
for this one we need
our first finger at the first fret
first string
second finger, second fret of the third string
third finger third fret second string
and we're making a very similar shape to this A minor chord
you've just got a bit more of a stretch with your third finger
so that was A minor
and then this ones D minor
and this angle becomes all important
if youre doing this chord straight, youre gonna
find it a real stretch for your fingers
and quite uncomfortable
and you can do some damage if you are doing that on kind of a big guitar
and you are pressing down very hard
This is much more comfortable when you get used to it
have your fingers pointing to your head or strumming shoulder
and strum the thinnest 4 strings
D Minor definately
If it rings out is always known as the saddest of all chords
Very weepy
Its all gone wrong
Why can no one learn the D minor chord
We can it just takes a little bit of practice!
so one more time, 1,2,3
pick each string
That third finger is definately the tricky one to get ringing out
but thats what our D minor chord should sound like
and it is used, and crops up very commonly
along with the E minor
The A minor
and the D minor
next up if you're following this course
we have a couple of cool strumming patterns that will shake up your strumming and get your rhythm really great
we got some Sus chords, Sus2 and sus4
and we'll talk about what all the numbers mean and help you out
But of course you can get on to the songs which would be appropriate for level 4
and they're all available on the website at andyguitar.co.uk
so I hope to see you in some of those lessons, take care of yourselves, and bye for now
You can download this video and the Ebook that goes with this course
By clicking in this area here
click over there to watch the next lesson here on youtube
please subscribe if you havent already, and all those links are in the description, if you are watching on mobile