Guitar Theory For Dummies: Book + Online Video & Audio Instruction
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On the guitar, the five minor CAGED forms connect just as the five major ones do. Here is one example of how to connect the five minor forms, starting on a Cm form, Dm. Here, the whole minor arpeggio patterns are shown; the black dots indicate the most commonly used chord voicings.

Focus on the black dots as you play through this exercise. Then work through the same exercise, starting on other minor chords, on your own.

[Credit: Illustration courtesy of Desi Serna]
Credit: Illustration courtesy of Desi Serna

Minor CAGED chord changes

Here is a sample chord progression that uses different minor CAGED forms .The chord progression is based in the key of A natural minor using the chords Am, Dm, and Em. Every four bars the same chord changes are repeated but in a different position using different voicings.

You touch on four positions in all with the fourth one being an octave higher than where you start in the open position. Slashes are used to reflect the alternate bass notes of some of the chord forms, but you can ignore them and just focus on the primary chords written before the slashes.

[Credit: Illustration courtesy of Desi Serna]
Credit: Illustration courtesy of Desi Serna

In terms of using minor chord forms to play chord progressions, you certainly have many more possibilities than what you see in Figure 4-36, and you can mix minor forms with major ones (as many of the songs referenced in this chapter do), but this example is enough to get you started.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book author:

Desi Serna, hailed as a music theory expert by Rolling Stone magazine, is a guitar player and teacher with over 10,000 hours of experience providing private guitar lessons and classes. He owns and operates one of the most popular guitar theory sites on the web, guitar-music-theory.com.

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