This alternate way of playing a D minor chord is much more of a challenge than the open D minor shape. Most often, strings won't ring because the fingers on your fretting hand aren't curled enough. If a string is muffled or deadened entirely, examine your hand and figure out the exact problem. To ensure this isn't happening to you, hold down the chord shape, and play the strings one at a time, making sure each string is ringing clearly. This is a particular problem because the note on the first string is what provides the "minor" sound in the D minor. The other common problem new guitarists have when playing this D minor shape is their third (ring) finger - it will often inadvertently touch the first string, deadening it. Accidentally hitting the lower strings is one of the most common mistakes new guitarists make - so pay attention to avoiding this. Lastly, place your first finger on the first fret of the first stringĪs in a D major chord, you should only strum the top four strings, avoiding the low E and A strings.Now, put your third (ring) finger on the third fret of the second string.Place your second (middle) finger on the second fret of the third string.Playing the shape is relatively straightforward: The basic D minor chord shown here is the most commonly used shape - you'll see this used constantly by guitarists everywhere. A chord progression to illustrate this could be: Am - Dm - Am - E.Partly because it's easy to play, and partly because of its simplicity, the D minor chord is one of the first chords a guitarist should learn. E includes E, G#, B whereas Em includes E, G, B. In the table above, you can see that E is used instead of Em as the fourth chord for the Am key. The leading tone resolves into the tonic and by rising it the movement from it to the tonic become stronger. The seventh degree is called the leading tone. Let's compare the regular scale and the alternative and use the A minor scale as an example: 1 What happens is that the seventh in the scale is sharpened. This chord can also sound great as a dominant 7th. It's common to play this chord as a major although it will include a note outside the related scale. The only difference is the fourth column in which the chord shift from minor to major. In that case, start to look for "Em" in the first column and when you can use all the chords in the same row (in this case it would be G, Am, Bm, C and D).Īnother chart, almost similar with the former.
#D MINOR CHORD HOW TO#
So how to read the table? Let's say you want to create a sequence of chords in E minor. This chart is useful if you want to create a song or a chord progression in a minor key. Minor chords are most commonly played in sequences that also include major chords or other chord types. Click on a link below a picture for more alternatives including barre shapes and capo positions. Therefore, you should check upon this and decide which way you prefer to play the chord. Some of the presented diagrams, primarily Cm, Fm, Bm, C#m/Dbm, D#m/Ebm, F#m/Gbm, are often played with other shapes (barre chords most of all), or with a capo.