Oct 30

E Minor Guitar Chord

How to play E minor chord

Ah, the ever-present E minor guitar chord...

If you are to pursue this guitar thang, at least for a while, chances are you are going to use this one quite a lot.

Now listen closely and listen well! Or watch, read...Whatever turns your crank man!

We’re going to show you two different versions of the e minor guitar chord today.

One will be the standard e-minor guitar open chord, and the other one will be the barre chord on the 7th fret of the 5th string.

Watch this video to learn How to play E minor Chord

Write your awesome label here.

Easy way of playing the E minor chord

Let’s start with the E 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.

For this one, you need to place your middle finger on the 2nd fret of the 5th string, and your ring finger on the 2nd fret of the 4th string. With your picking hand, you are playing all 6 strings.

Advanced way of playing the E Minor Chord

The E chord guitar players tend to avoid at first is the barre chord on the 7th fret.

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 Johnny Ramone in no time!

To play this one, use your first finger to press the bottom 5 strings on the 7th fret. Put your middle finger on the 8th fret of the 2nd string. After that, use your ring finger and put it on the 9th fret of the 4th string. Lastly, the pinky goes right underneath the ring finger, on the 9th fret of the 3rd string.

In regards to your picking hand, you are playing the bottom 5 strings.

E Minor Practice Tips:

  1. While playing the open e minor guitar chord, make sure that all your open strings ring out. You have to make sure that your fingers are not brushing up any unwanted strings, and thus muting them. Pick all the strings separately, 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.
Pro-tip: There are many different ways of playing the Em chord. Do you want to learn other versions of this chord? Other chords in e minor scale? Or like, literally everything guitar-related? If the answer is - yes, to any of the above, make sure to join the GuitarZoom membership!