Bm Guitar Chord for Beginners

Bm guitar chord

One of the most difficult chords to learn for a beginner is the Bm guitar chord. So now it’s time to pull out all the stops, and learn the Bm chord on guitar.

Here’s what you will learn in this free lesson:

  1. How to play the Bm guitar chord properly
  2. What the best Bm guitar chord to use as a beginner player
  3. 4 ways to play the Bm guitar chord
  4. Learn a song with the Bm guitar chord in it
  5. Bm Guitar Chord Finger Position
  6. 3 Bonus Tips

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How to Play the Bm Guitar Chord Properly

The simple fact of why it is hard to play the B minor guitar chord is; You have to Barre the Bm chord to play it. As a beginner guitar player this is difficult, because you have not built up strength yet.

There are exercises that can help whip your fingers into shape see the link at the bottom of the page for,”Guitar Technique and finger strengthening.”

When we talk about “Barre”, we are talking about using your first finger and lay it across the strings. Either all the six strings or as few as two strings. This depends on what chord you are playing. Sometimes you use your third finger to barre strings. Again depending on what chord you are making.

Let’s take a look at the Bm guitar chord Finger Position.

Bm Guitar Chord

The Bm is read as a B minor guitar chord. This is how to position your fingers to play the Bm chord.

  1. Place your first finger across all the first 5 strings at the second fret.
  2. Next place your second finger on the 2nd string at the 3rd fret.
  3. Put Your 3rd finger on the 4th string at the 4th fret.
  4. Then Place your Pinkie on the 3rd string at the 4th fret.
  5. Strum from the 5th string.

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A couple of tips when playing the Bm guitar chord.

First when making the barre with your first finger don’t put your finger flat on the strings. Curl or bend it a little, and play on the side of your finger. The outer edge not the fleshy part of your finger. The more solid bony part of your finger.

Second keep your thumb lower, down the middle part of the neck of the guitar.Lastly when you are pushing on the strings, you should also be pushing with your thumb.

Bm Guitar Chord Finger Position

Click the link to learn how to read a chord chart.

How to play the Bm Guitar Chord on the 6th string

You can see this Bm guitar chord is played at the 7th fret.

Bm guitar chord

The Bm guitar chord finger position played on the 6th string.

Here is how to play this barre chord.

  1. Place your first finger across all 6 strings, at the 7th fret.
  2. Next place your 3rd finger on the 5th string, at the 9th fret.
  3. Then place your pinkie on the 4th string, at the 9th fret.

Since the Bm Barre chord is difficult to master for a beginner guitar player look at this easier Bm guitar chord.

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The Easier way of Playing a Bm Chord on Guitar

Here’s what the Beginner Bm looks like:

B minor guitar chord

This is the easier Bm guitar chord. If you struggle with the Bm barre chord. While your practicing, and getting your fingers working for you. Keep trying to play the Bm barre chord. But until you master it you can try this easier Bm chord. Just use three  fingers on this chord, and don’t worry about the 5th string. Just play from the fourth string. This is still a B minor chord.

Here is the Bm Chord Finger Placement

  • Put your first finger on the 1st string, at the 2nd fret.
  • Place your 2nd finger on the 2nd string, at the 3rd fret.
  • Then put your 3rd finger on the 3rd string, at the 4th fret.
  • Start the strum from the 4th string.

B minor chord finger position on the 7th fret

This B minor chord finger position is found a lot in jazz music.

B minor guitar chord

This B minor guitar chord is a little hard to get the hang of it because you need to hold the B note on the 6th string without muting the F# and D notes on the 5th and 4th string. Here is the B minor finger position at the 7th fret.

  • First place your first finger on the 6th string, at the 7th fret.
  • Directly under your first finger place your third finger across the 3rd 2nd  and 1st string. (barre).
  • Strum all strings.

Now we have learned all these different ways to play the Bm guitar chord that’s great, but what makes playing the guitar fun is playing a song.

Guitar Fingerboard Breakthrough

Learn a song with a Bm Guitar Chord in it

Here is a well known song that was released in 1990 by Garth Brooks called,”Friends in low Places.” This song has a great strumming Pattern and for the most part all easy chords in it.

There are 4 chords in the song and they are the A E dim7add9,11, (It sounds scary) But really its 4 fingers. I’ll show you how you can do it! Then the Bm, and E chord.

At the beginning of the song it is an Arpeggio. What this means is the chords notes are picked individually. But don’t worry it takes time to master this method. Just learn the chords and how to strum the song.

The song starts on the A pluck down slowly one string at a time. Start at the open A string, which is the 5th string. Then it goes to the E dim chord. If you have any problems with the basic chords check out first position chords

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Edim7add9,11 Finger Position

That sounds like a big- bad, long winded chord. It is only 4 fingers and no Barre 🙂 Here is the Edim7add9,11 finger position:

  • First finger is on the 4th string, at the second fret.
  • Your 2nd finger is on the 2nd string, at the 2nd fret.
  • Next put your 3rd finger on the 3rd string, at the 3rd fret.
  • The pinkie goes on the 1st string at the 3rd fret.

Strum slow the E dim down to the first string. Pick the strings one at a time, and start at the 4th string.

The Bm guitar chord is played next. To make it easy to understand how the strings are picked I will tell you what number of the string that you pick. Remember on guitar the Thickest string is 6 and it goes down to 1 the thinnest string. 6 5 4 3 2 1.

Make the Bm chord and pick these strings. 5 4 3 2,  4, 3, 2. After that it goes to the E chord. Pick each string from the 6th string down to the 3rd string. Pick it again 6, 5, 4, 3 4,5. Next chord is the A major chord. You pick down 5, 4, 3, 2,  3, 4, 2 . Then it goes to the dim chord, 4,3, 2 ,1 2,3, 1 and then the Bm.

Playing  the Base Line  

This sounds really good if your playing by yourself and don’t have a bass player then play this. Pluck the open E string two times. The 6th string is the E string. Second place your first finger on the 6th string 2nd fret, the F# and pick it. Then pick the G# which is played by putting your 3rd finger on the 6th string, at the 4th fret.

Then the strumming starts on the A chord.

Strumming Pattern to Friends in Low Places

Down Down up up down up, Down Down up up down up. The chord progression is A,

Edim7add9,11, Bm, E. This is played two times slowly Then 3 bars of strumming the E chord, and back to the A. This is to really fun song to play. Have fun learning it and have fun playing it for friends and family. Click for the video Lesson.

 

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