Hey Friend,

To make a major chord into a minor chord is very simple. In fact, it's a minor little shift as you will change only one note in the chord. With this one shift you will begin to see where the magic in guitar chords starts.

Major chords are created from three notes - the one, three and five notes from a major scale. If you want to make an open G major chord, just write out the scale and pick the one, three and five notes. There's your G major chord.

Now let's say you want to use a G minor chord. Which note do you change? 

Well, we've already established that you need to have that one note - it's the root (or tonic) of the chord (or scale). And we know that the next strongest note in a scale is the five note (and that's why this is the second note in a power chord). That leaves us with the three note.

Third best note in a chord? Nope. This is the note that makes all the magic happen. 

By shifting this note by a single fret, you change the entire mood and feel. Move the note up by one fret towards the five note and you get a chord that sounds like your anticipating or expecting something (this is a suspended 4 chord). You can actually feel like something good is about to happen.

But take that three note and move it down one fret - one inch or less on the fingerboard - and the mood changes from happy to sad. In an instance.

That same G major chord morphed into G minor changes the three note from B to Bb (B flat). 

How about an E major chord. The notes making up E major are E, G# and B. So to get E minor, the G# note becomes G. Just lift your index finger off the G string. 

Play each of the chords in their major and minor forms. You can clearly hear how the general mood or feel of the chord transforms into a different emotional pull. 

Now I expect some of you are a little ticked at me right now. I told you to play an open G major chord, which is a Root inversion (note order 1, 3, 5). But then I said change it to a G minor, which means playing an open chord shape you haven't used before. 

The E major to E minor shift was no big deal though, right? You've seen them both before. I want you to notice the note order in the E major chord as you play it on the fingerboard. Is it E, G#, B? 

No, the note order is B, E, G# (5, 1, 3). Second inversion, baby.

I did this on purpose - a Root inversion minor chord isn't a shape that gets shown to beginner guitar students because the chord changes can be a little overwhelming. A much easier minor chord to play comes in the Second inversion of chords. This is because standard guitar tuning lines notes up on the strings in perfect configurations. These chord shapes are also a lot easier to use in chord changes while you're playing.

Wait a second - if Root inversion minor chords such as G minor or C minor are such a pain, but we need to play the minor version of these chords, what do we use? 

This is why you'll almost always use the Second inversion minor chords when you're playing. Like with G minor. When most experienced players need a G minor, they just use the barre chord, which is a Second inversion form played at the third fret. 

Orrrr....

Use a power chord if barre chords are still a struggle for you. Yup, playing a simple G5 power chord will satisfy the requirement in a Rock song most of the time. True, you're not going to get the full emotional value out of the power chord itself, but usually the melody will take care of that. 

Yes, a power chord isn't the end-all, be-all, especially if you're more into finger style playing, but in a pinch, and at least while you're learning and strengthening your fingers, power chords are an easy go to. You can check out all the goodness with Easy Power Chords today.

Peace~

Dave