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Blues Guitar Institute

Beginner Guitar Chords: Part 3 – A Minor and E Minor

This is the third installment in the Beginner Guitar Chords series.  If you are just starting out, I encourage you to check out the first two lessons:

Beginner Guitar Chords Part 1

Beginner Guitar Chords Part 2

The next two beginner guitar chords you should learn are E minor and A minor.  The E minor chord is a two finger chord that has a big sound.  I think you’ll like it.  The A minor chord is cool in its own right.  I can’t tell you how many songs you could learn once you know the major chords from Part 1 and Part 2 along with these two simple minor chords.

We will learn these two chords in the open position just like we did with the major chords.  Open position simply means that your hand is fretting the strings up near the nut (by the tuners).  These “open position” chords have a big, full sound because most (if not all) of the strings are strummed when playing these chords and they make use of the open strings.

Beginner Guitar Chords:  A minor and E minor

Here are the chord diagrams for each chord which show which finger goes on what fret.

A Minor

beginner guitar chords

      E Minor

beginner guitar chords

Practice the Chords

Practice these in the same manner you practiced the chords from Part 1 and Part 2; play the chord and then pick each note to make sure each string rings perfectly clear. (Figure 1 and Figure 1a)

A Minor Tab (Figure 1)

beginner guitar chords

E Minor Tab (Figure 1a)

beginner guitar chords

Play Along with these Songs

Check out these songs for some examples of great tunes that use some of the chords you have learned:

For the more adventurous, try out Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, the melody parts around the chords are a challenge, but completely worth it.

Good luck and keep strumming!

When you are ready, there are two ways I can help you:

Back Porch Blues Course:  A proven system to fingerpicking the blues.  This step-by-step course guides you through building fundamental fingerpicking skills.  Plus, you’ll learn three levels of a delta blues style performance study to put your new skills into action.

Become a myBGI Member: Membership comes with access to Back Porch Blues plus over 70 step-by-step courses.  Get proven results with one of myBGI’s structured Roadmaps.

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