Martin's Fascinating Internal Dialogs

Darkening the Mood

So far, we've only been looking at major chords. It's now time to venture into the dark side. All the shapes we've looked at so far can be converted into their minor equivalents simply by moving note 3 down a fret so it becomes ♭3:

For the ‘practical’ versions of these shapes, we'll take the same approach as we did for the movable major shapes. The same comments apply regarding the optional omission of some of the notes as for those shapes too. However, this time omitting either of the root in shape [2]m becomes, perhaps, a matter of necessity for most people.

Repeat the previous I-IV-I-V-I exercises with minor chords:

1) [6]₃m [5]₃m [6]₃m [2]₃m [6]₃m

2) [5]₃m [4]₃m [5]₃m [6]₃m [5]₃m

3) [4]₃m [3]₃m [4]₃m [5]₃m [4]₃m

4) [3]₃m [2]₄m [3]₃m [4]₃m [3]₃m

5) [2]₄m [6]₄m [2]₄m [3]₃m [2]₄m

If this is sounding a little too medieval for your tastes, try replacing chord V with the major equivalent:

1) [6]₃m [5]₃m [6]₃m [2]₃ [6]₃m

2) [5]₃m [4]₃m [5]₃m [6]₃ [5]₃m

3) [4]₃m[3]₃m [4]₃m [5]₃ [4]₃m

4) [3]₃m[2]₄m [3]₃m [4]₃ [3]₃m

5) [2]₄m [6]₄m [2]₄m [3]₃ [2]₄m