Minor chords offer an easy way to add variety and complexity to your chord progressions, typically being less complex than major chords while possessing a soothing sound.
Minor chords can be broken down to three components – the first, third, and fifth notes from any major scale. You can play these chords using barre shapes or capo.
How to play a minor chord
This variation of an open A minor chord is simple and sounds fantastic! It resembles the standard barred A minor chord but without its bass note. Additionally, this version makes fingering easier due to only needing three fingers at once instead of needing your index finger for barred across frets barrering.
The A minor chord is an extremely popular acoustic guitar chord found in many songs, often used to convey sadness or melancholic emotions. You’ll likely come across this chord across different genres such as rock and folk music.
To play this chord, begin by positioning your index finger on the B string first fret. Next, place your middle finger on A string second fret and finally on G string third fret before strumming all five strings except thickest string (avoiding high E). If this chord is difficult for you to play, try placing your thumb on second thickest string as an aid in fretting it.
How to change a major chord into a minor chord
As you learn chords and scales, you’ll see how making even minor adjustments can create an entirely different atmosphere in a song. For example, Taylor Swift’s song Blank Space starts off in C major; changing one chord to minor makes all of a sudden it has more melancholy and sorrowfulness to it.
Switching a major chord into its relative minor chord is simple and can be achieved by simply lowering its third interval by half steps. Furthermore, any minor chord can easily become its relative major by raising its third by an entire step.
Chord progressions form the core of any song, and understanding their operation is central to music theory. Gain more knowledge about chord progressions and how you can use them creatively with premium courses from LANDR.
How to change a minor chord into a major chord
Shifting a song from major to minor can create more emotion while adding tension, making this an essential concept to grasp if one aspires to develop their own musical interpretation.
Change a song from major to minor by altering its chord progression using relative minor chords (also referred to as substitution chords).
For instance, if you’re playing in C major, switching to A minor can be accomplished simply by replacing your C major chord with its relative minor – A minor triad.
This music theory technique is one of the most frequently employed in order to vary a song’s emotion. It works well across genres of music and has been employed by artists like Adele, Johnny Cash and Nirvana in their hit tracks Back to Black and Smells Like Teen Spirit respectively. You can use this same approach with any major scale by lowering its third, sixth and seventh notes by half steps until their relative minor scale has been created.
How to change a major chord into an augmented chord
Augmented chords may be confusing for students since they do not fit neatly into the major, minor, and diminished families of diatonic chords that comprise tonal music. Augmented chords do appear within harmonic and melodic minor scales as third chords (III+ and i). Furthermore, Augmented Chords can also be found on Whole Tone Scale which produces Augmented Triads as well as Dominant 7th Chords at every scale degree.
Create an augmented chord by altering its intervallic structure of a major chord built upon it. To turn an m(maj7) chord into an augmented one, simply raise its fifth by half step; this creates a different sound which is less dissonant than when root and major seventh clash in an m(maj7) chord – perfect when transitioning from minor drop chords to major seven chords or vice versa!