"Minor" Barre Chords ("A" Shape)
Lesson Goals:
♦ Learn the "minor" barre chord "A" shape
♦ Compare open Am to minor barre chords
♦ Learn Bbm, Cm and Dm barre chords
In this lesson we will learn minor chords based on the "A" shape barre chords.
Let's first take a look at a comparison between the open A chord and Am chord.
You may remember that to form an open Am chord, all you have to do is lower the note on the 2nd fret of the 2nd string one fret.
Notice the "shape" of the Am chord. This is the shape that we will apply to minor barre chords higher up the neck of the guitar. This is the same principle we applied to the "shape" of major barre chords using the "A" major shape.
Also notice in the above diagram that, like the "A" major shape, we will need to make an adjustment on our fingering to free up the 1st (index) finger so that it can make the "bar".
Now let's look at the diagram below.
The above diagram illustrates how we can take the Am open chord and slide it up one fret to make a bar chord. In this case, because the root note is on the 1st fret of the 5th string we are now playing a Bbm (B flat minor) barre chord.
The following diagram continues that thought further up the neck. If we slide the Bbm barre chord (from the previous diagram), up two frets so that the new root note is on the 3rd fret of the 5th string, we would now be playing a Cm (barre) chord.
Two frets up from the Cm would put us at the 5th fret of the 5th string which would be an Dm (barre) chord.
You could continue doing that right on up the length of the guitar neck just by knowing the names of the notes on the 5th string.
Take a moment and work on playing the Cm and Dm barre chords.
