Minor Keys and Minor Chords

A major chord and a minor chord differ by a single note. In C major the notes are C, E and G; in C minor the middle note drops a half step to E♭. That lowered third is the whole difference, and you can hear it at once.

Press A, then Am; D, then Dm. Watch which string changes: in each pair one note moves down one fret.

The key of A minor

A minor is the relative minor of C major: it uses the same seven notes, A B C D E F G, but A is home. Its main chords are Am (home), Dm (IV) and E7 (V7). E7 is a major chord with a seventh, borrowed from the harmonic minor scale (it contains G♯), and it pulls hard back to Am.

The key of E minor

E minor is the relative minor of G major (one sharp, F♯). Its chords include Em, Am, B7, and from the relative major, G, C and D. Greensleeves uses them. B7 is a new shape: index finger across the 2nd fret of all four strings, with the middle finger on the 3rd fret of the C string.

This last strum is in 6/8: count six eighth notes in two groups, “ONE two three FOUR five six,” with a down strum on 1 and 4 and an up strum on 3 and 6.