Minor shapes

Major and minor chords differ by exactly one note. Find that note inside the shapes you already know, lower it one fret, and every major shape you own becomes a minor shape. This is the best exchange rate in music: one fret buys you a whole second emotion.

One note does it

Inside every major chord there’s a note called the third. Lower it by a half step — one fret — and the chord turns minor. Nothing else moves. Major chords tend to sound bright, settled, sunny; minors sound darker, sadder, more serious. You’re about to hear that difference under your own fingers.

Three open minors

(Diagrams as always: columns are strings, low E leftmost; digits are fingers; o open, x skip.)

E minor — E major with the index lifted off the G string
  E A D G B e
  o . . o o o
  -----------
2 . 1 2 . . .

A minor — A major with the B string note pulled back one fret
  E A D G B e
  x o . . . o
  -----------
1 . . . . 1 .
2 . . 2 3 . .

D minor — D major with the high e note pulled back one fret
  E A D G B e
  x x o . . .
  -----------
1 . . . . . 1
2 . . . 2 . .
3 . . . . 3 .

Try each pair back to back: E then Em, A then Am, D then Dm. In every pair your hand moves one finger, one fret, and the mood flips. That moving note is the third.

(Why no open Cm or Gm? Their thirds sit on open strings, which can’t be lowered — you’d need a barre. The neck gives you three easy minors and asks you to move shapes for the rest.)

Movable minors

The same one-note logic works on the barre forms from last exercise:

Em-form barre at fret 1 (F minor)
  E A D G B e
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
3 . 3 4 . . .

Am-form barre at fret 1 (A# minor / Bb minor)
  E A D G B e
1 x 1 1 . . 1
3 . . . 3 4 .

The Em form is the E-form barre with the middle finger lifted — the barre now supplies the lowered third. Naming works exactly as before: root under the barre, low E string for the Em form, A string for the Am form. Em form at fret 3 is G minor; Am form at fret 5 is D minor.

The drill

Loop Am → Dm → Em at 60 BPM, one strum per click, never stopping the pulse. Then test your ears: strum any chord you know, eyes off the fretboard diagrams, and ask yourself major or minor? before checking. When the answer comes from the sound and not the shape, the lesson has landed.