Hey Friend,

Continuing on with the key of G major, the next chord we come to after A minor is B minor. It is the IIIm chord in this key, and it gets its tension from the pull of the next chord, which is C major. C is tugging B minor up towards the five chord (D), so you feel it drawing upwards.

I   IIm  IIIm  IV  V  VIm  VII°

G Am  Bm  C   D  Em   F#°

B minor was always one of those chords that intimidated me because I wasn't really aware of any open position fingerings. I just expected that I would have to play the barre chord and that was that. Fortunate for you, I was wrong. There is an open position chord we'll look at, and while it is challenging in its own right, it is a bit easier to play than a barre chord (but NOT a power chord!).

If you want to avoid the barre chord completely, you could get away with simply moving the A minor chord up two frets and ONLY playing the fourth, third and second strings. The only drawback is the chord could end up sounding a bit thin. Besides, you don't want to cheat your fingers a good workout, do you?

The notes we're going to use in B minor are B, D and F#. Remember, all the notes we need in the chords are contained within the key, so let's look at G again.

G  A  B  C  D  E  F#  G

A B major chord is notes B, D# an F#, so you can see that the D note in B minor works, since we take the third note and flatten it, dropping down one fret (semitone). 

I'm still working on the exercise files, so stand by, they're coming. We'll finish this discussion up tomorrow, as I have run myself out of time. Sorry about that - you know as well as I that a job is a demanding S.O. B.! 

Peace~

Dave