The Minor 7 Chord
Hi and welcome to the minor 7 series. Today we're going to learn to minor 7 chords A through G Minor 7. A Minor 7 chord is, the easiest way to remember it is it’s a combination between a minor chord which is one flat 3 and 5 and a 7 chord. This is 1, 3, 5, and flat 7. If you put those together and hybridize them and integrate them you have a one flat 3, 5 flat 7. Please refer to the essential basics videos, the theory videos that I have to understand a little bit more about what I'm talking about there. Let's go ahead and get started.
We have something down by the - the thing is a lot of these minor 7 chords and major 7 chords and so on are derived from counterparts which I described as really the fundamentals of music which were major and minor chords to start with.
The Minor 7 chord is going to be down where the minor chord is here. Just lift up your ring finger, that's an A Minor 7. The note that you are holding down here was the 1. And what we're doing with the 1 is we're moving it back to 7 which is right in the back of 1. The 7th and back of 1 per the audio pattern as an outlined in the video series for music theory. Like I said, check into that to get a little - so you can get more out of this videos. The 7 is here and then the flat 7 is back there. That's what we need to complete it, now we've got a Minor 7 chord. A Minor 7 chord, that is our G. And there's different ways to configure Minor 7, you can add this up here. This is another G; you got two G's in there now. That sweetens it up a little bit. There's an A Minor 7. See you in the next chord.
This next chord is a B Minor 7 and it is based on the A Minor 7 configurations down here. So, if you remember A Minor 7, it's what we did right here. Now all we're going to do is essentially take this and move it up not 1 but 2 frets. And if you're seeing this for the first time, you're essentially going to take an A Minor 7 and move it up 2 frets. You've got your ring finger on the 4th string on the 4th fret and your middle finger on the 2nd string in the 3rd fret and then you have your barring finger back here. And I assume it gets a little harder but I want you to try it anyway and just practice and eventually you will get it. There you go. And per the diagram, you can see where all the notes are, what their names are, what degrees they are most importantly. And that's a B Minor 7.
Next chord is a C Minor 7 and if you remember the B Minor 7 that we did, all a C Minor 7 really is, is just a bump up from the B Minor 7. The B Minor 7 chord was down here which we just did. And what we're going to do is take this and just bump it up one fret so it's up here on the 3rd; this is on the 3rd fret now. And then your configuration's up here. That's a C Minor. Just go through, make sure all the notes are coming out, if they're not, it's okay. It's good to use your fingers with Jazz chords. You can put together some cool base line and so on. And if you're not sure what base lines are at this point, there will be other videos. We’ll have this covered in other videos in the series. See you in the next chord.
The next chord is D Minor 7 and the good news is, is that we're not going to be doing the bar chord anymore for that. What we're going to do is we’re going to come down to the base of the neck. We’re going to hold both of these two strings down. We're not going to do an F; we're going to hold both of these two strings down here. This one here and that one here. The 1st and 2nd string in the 1st fret needs to be down. And this one, this one here your middle finger is the next one down. This one's on the 3rd string on the 2nd fret. This is really all you need and you don't want to hit both either of these bottom ones here. You don't want to hit your E string, you don't want to hit your A string. Everything else is good, let's do it. And that's it, D Minor 7.
The next chord is an E Minor 7. And E Minor 7 is going to be down here. If you remember where E Minor was, we were doing the E Minor chord in the fundamental series is, there’s two fundamental base chords here. Just a straight E Minors here. E Minor 7 is a little different, you just lift this finger, you're just doing 1 now. Your chord gets more complicated theoretically but physically it got easier. That's E minor 7 and if you want you can also add another embellishment per the diagram here on the 3rd fret on the 2nd string like this with your ring finger. So, you’ve got… That's E minor 7, just go through and make sure your chords are coming out clear and you can hear every note. If you can't for some reason, just go back, do it again. You will end up getting it eventually, just take practice, don't lose heart. See you in the next chord.
This next chord is called F Minor 7 and this is kind of a tough chord to do. Mainly because we're bringing back the bar again unfortunately. The bar is the finger across the back thing that you see people do. We're going to bring that back, we're going to do that again and make it F Minor 7. This one's really tough. All the Fs are tough just the way it is, it's no big deal. You'll get it, it's really just a matter of you just persevering and just hanging in there. Let's take a look at what F Minor 7 looks like. We've got the bar back here in the 1st fret and then we've got loss of that the ring finger here ok on the 5th string on the 3rd fret and then we've got the pinky finger on the 2nd string of the 4th and we're just going to try the whole on this stuff down at the same time and hope for the best. Here we go. And it worked. And you can use this finger, your middle to push your index down giving it a little extra leverage to get that going.
And this isn't the only way to do it; there are other ways of course. We will show you the hardest way to do it. So, when you get to the easier ways; it's going to be piece of cake. This is the way you should do it for now. We're just really focusing on hand strengths, formations and voicing to get you prime for some of the other stuff. It's going to be a lot more fun since you're not going to have to struggle to get it as much. F Minor 7. See you in the next chord.
The last chord of the Minor 7 series is G Minor 7 and we're going to use the same form and the same voicing as we used for F Minor 7 and for G Minor 7. Let's go ahead and put it together. We've got for F Minor 7, we had this going on down here. And what we're going to do is just take what we had down here is just take what we had down here. And if we look at the key board and we look at the arrangement of all the notes, we'll notice that F is two half steps below G, one two half steps up or 2 frets and we have G Minor 7.
Then we go to A Minor 7 if we want. One, two, because there's a black key between G and A and we got to go through that. There's an A Minor 7. When you get to the same note on A Minor 7 down here, remember that’s the first chord that we did in the Minor 7 series. It sounds the same, we kind of attempt to make it sound the same. But it didn’t quite sound the same as this. And you know what? That's okay, because you want to know how to do as many different G's minor 7s as you can. Not that more is better, it’s just versatile and being able to do more stuff is better than just being able to do it one way across the board.
We have something down by the - the thing is a lot of these minor 7 chords and major 7 chords and so on are derived from counterparts which I described as really the fundamentals of music which were major and minor chords to start with.
The Minor 7 chord is going to be down where the minor chord is here. Just lift up your ring finger, that's an A Minor 7. The note that you are holding down here was the 1. And what we're doing with the 1 is we're moving it back to 7 which is right in the back of 1. The 7th and back of 1 per the audio pattern as an outlined in the video series for music theory. Like I said, check into that to get a little - so you can get more out of this videos. The 7 is here and then the flat 7 is back there. That's what we need to complete it, now we've got a Minor 7 chord. A Minor 7 chord, that is our G. And there's different ways to configure Minor 7, you can add this up here. This is another G; you got two G's in there now. That sweetens it up a little bit. There's an A Minor 7. See you in the next chord.
This next chord is a B Minor 7 and it is based on the A Minor 7 configurations down here. So, if you remember A Minor 7, it's what we did right here. Now all we're going to do is essentially take this and move it up not 1 but 2 frets. And if you're seeing this for the first time, you're essentially going to take an A Minor 7 and move it up 2 frets. You've got your ring finger on the 4th string on the 4th fret and your middle finger on the 2nd string in the 3rd fret and then you have your barring finger back here. And I assume it gets a little harder but I want you to try it anyway and just practice and eventually you will get it. There you go. And per the diagram, you can see where all the notes are, what their names are, what degrees they are most importantly. And that's a B Minor 7.
Next chord is a C Minor 7 and if you remember the B Minor 7 that we did, all a C Minor 7 really is, is just a bump up from the B Minor 7. The B Minor 7 chord was down here which we just did. And what we're going to do is take this and just bump it up one fret so it's up here on the 3rd; this is on the 3rd fret now. And then your configuration's up here. That's a C Minor. Just go through, make sure all the notes are coming out, if they're not, it's okay. It's good to use your fingers with Jazz chords. You can put together some cool base line and so on. And if you're not sure what base lines are at this point, there will be other videos. We’ll have this covered in other videos in the series. See you in the next chord.
The next chord is D Minor 7 and the good news is, is that we're not going to be doing the bar chord anymore for that. What we're going to do is we’re going to come down to the base of the neck. We’re going to hold both of these two strings down. We're not going to do an F; we're going to hold both of these two strings down here. This one here and that one here. The 1st and 2nd string in the 1st fret needs to be down. And this one, this one here your middle finger is the next one down. This one's on the 3rd string on the 2nd fret. This is really all you need and you don't want to hit both either of these bottom ones here. You don't want to hit your E string, you don't want to hit your A string. Everything else is good, let's do it. And that's it, D Minor 7.
The next chord is an E Minor 7. And E Minor 7 is going to be down here. If you remember where E Minor was, we were doing the E Minor chord in the fundamental series is, there’s two fundamental base chords here. Just a straight E Minors here. E Minor 7 is a little different, you just lift this finger, you're just doing 1 now. Your chord gets more complicated theoretically but physically it got easier. That's E minor 7 and if you want you can also add another embellishment per the diagram here on the 3rd fret on the 2nd string like this with your ring finger. So, you’ve got… That's E minor 7, just go through and make sure your chords are coming out clear and you can hear every note. If you can't for some reason, just go back, do it again. You will end up getting it eventually, just take practice, don't lose heart. See you in the next chord.
This next chord is called F Minor 7 and this is kind of a tough chord to do. Mainly because we're bringing back the bar again unfortunately. The bar is the finger across the back thing that you see people do. We're going to bring that back, we're going to do that again and make it F Minor 7. This one's really tough. All the Fs are tough just the way it is, it's no big deal. You'll get it, it's really just a matter of you just persevering and just hanging in there. Let's take a look at what F Minor 7 looks like. We've got the bar back here in the 1st fret and then we've got loss of that the ring finger here ok on the 5th string on the 3rd fret and then we've got the pinky finger on the 2nd string of the 4th and we're just going to try the whole on this stuff down at the same time and hope for the best. Here we go. And it worked. And you can use this finger, your middle to push your index down giving it a little extra leverage to get that going.
And this isn't the only way to do it; there are other ways of course. We will show you the hardest way to do it. So, when you get to the easier ways; it's going to be piece of cake. This is the way you should do it for now. We're just really focusing on hand strengths, formations and voicing to get you prime for some of the other stuff. It's going to be a lot more fun since you're not going to have to struggle to get it as much. F Minor 7. See you in the next chord.
The last chord of the Minor 7 series is G Minor 7 and we're going to use the same form and the same voicing as we used for F Minor 7 and for G Minor 7. Let's go ahead and put it together. We've got for F Minor 7, we had this going on down here. And what we're going to do is just take what we had down here is just take what we had down here. And if we look at the key board and we look at the arrangement of all the notes, we'll notice that F is two half steps below G, one two half steps up or 2 frets and we have G Minor 7.
Then we go to A Minor 7 if we want. One, two, because there's a black key between G and A and we got to go through that. There's an A Minor 7. When you get to the same note on A Minor 7 down here, remember that’s the first chord that we did in the Minor 7 series. It sounds the same, we kind of attempt to make it sound the same. But it didn’t quite sound the same as this. And you know what? That's okay, because you want to know how to do as many different G's minor 7s as you can. Not that more is better, it’s just versatile and being able to do more stuff is better than just being able to do it one way across the board.
