Chords 10: E minor

The easiest way to remember E minor is to say that we are building a “small staircase” with our fingers. The only thing we need to memorise carefully is where the staircase begins. Start at the second fret of the lowest string, then move one string over and one fret higher each time as we place three fingers, leaving the fourth string open. That produces the 0432 shape:

It is not one of the difficult chords, although coordinating three fingers precisely demands just a little more attention than something like A minor or F major. This shape is worth memorising because it is useful for other chords as well. So let us see how to build the little E-minor staircase: