Saturday, November 8, 2014

Chord "Deux" Jour Challenge: Bm and D

I challenge you to learn two chords every day, until the last day of the season (December 20). If you've missed a day, please refer to this list. You have your choice between the guitar and the piano (keyboard), or both. If you're a beginner, I'll show you relatively simple ways to play each chord. If you're more advanced, you'll have the entire fretboard and/or keyboard to explore.

Simple guitar chord shapes are marked with a number representing the recommended fingers to use for fretting a chord:

1 index finger
2 middle finger
3 ring finger
4 little finger
o play open string
x do not play open string
( bar one finger over more than one string
T that rare occasion that I recommend you use your thumb to fret a note

Let me introduce you to our first proper guitar barre chord, B minor (Bm):


Guitarists, you will notice that Bm is shaped exactly like Am, but shifted two frets. Instead of open strings on the A and high E strings, your index finger will form a "bar" just behind the 2nd fret.

Keyboardists, Bm is B-D-F#, as opposed to Bdim, which is B-D-F. That is the difference between a perfect 5th (F#) and a diminished 5th (F).

Next is D major (D):


Guitarists, avoid playing the open low E string for this chord ... unless the low E is tuned down to D ("dropped-D tuning").

Keyboardists, D is D-F#-A, as opposed to Dm, which is D-F-A. That is the difference between a major 3rd (F#) and a minor 3rd (F).

Two chords tomorrow! Cheers!

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