E Minor Shape Barre Chords

The barre chords we’ve covered so far have all been MAJOR, i.e. they use a major 3rd, played with the middle finger.These pages cover the MINOR barre chord shape. On the surface - this is super easy as it’s so similar to the major. However, in practice it’s MUCH tough- er to get the strings ringing out. This is because the first finger has to do more work. We’ll cover a bunch of ways to compensate for this.

Here is a reminder of all the root notes of this chord on string 6, so whichever fret your at, that's the name of the chord e.g. 3rd fret barre would be a G minor chord

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It is crucial that you are comfortable playing the major barre chord shape before taking on the minor. The major and minor barre chords would have the same letter name when at the same fret, but when the middle finger is lifted it be- comes a minor chord.This minor chord is the toughest chord covered so far, especially for getting the first finger to hold down all the strings! Let’s take a look...