Oct 28

A Minor Guitar Chord

How to play A minor chord

Since all your Stairway to Heaven’s and Angie’s have this chord as their basis, not knowing how to play an A minor chord would be the same as not knowing to tie your shoelaces in the real world.

Today, we will be showing you two different versions of the A minor chord.

One will be the standard A minor open chord, and the other one will be the barre chord on the 5th fret of the 6th string.

Full steam ahead!

Watch this video to learn How To Play A Minor Chord

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Easy way of playing the A minor chord

Let’s start with the A minor open chord.

If you are a total newbie, let's first define what an open chord is. The open chord is a chord that features one or more open strings and is usually played on the first three frets.

To play the A minor chord, place your first finger on the 1st fret of the 2nd string. Place your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the 4th string, and place your ring finger on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string.

With your picking hand, you are playing the bottom 5 strings.

Advanced way of playing the A minor chord

There are not that many things that tend to scare off the beginner guitar players such as barre chords. Don’t be too hard on yourself. We’re gonna take you through it step by step. With a little bit of patience, you will be playing these like Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs in no time!

To play this one, you need to use your first finger to bar across all strings on the 5th fret. Place your ring finger on the 7th fret of the 5th string, and your pinky on the 7th fret of the 4th string, and voila!

As far as your picking hand goes, you are playing all 6 strings.

A Minor Practice Tips:

  1. While playing the open A minor guitar chord, make sure that all your open strings ring. You have to make sure that your fingers are not brushing up any unwanted strings, and thus muting them. Pick all the strings in succession, to make sure everything is ok. You may need to adjust your fretting hand’s angle

  2. When reading the chord diagram, you should know that ‘’X’’ signifies a string you do not want to play.

  3. When placing your fingers, make sure that you are behind the fret wire. Also, barre’s aside, make sure that you are pressing the strings with your fingertips.

  4. If playing a full A minor chord is too difficult, start by playing it on the bottom 4 strings only. Place your ring finger on the 7th fret of the 4th string, and bar your first finger across the bottom 3 strings on the 5th fret.
Pro-tip: There are many different guitar A minor chord variations. Do you want to learn other versions of this chord? Other chords in A minor scale? Or like, everything guitar-related? If the answer is - yes, to any of the above, make sure to join the GuitarZoom membership!