Bm (read as B minor) chord is one of the common guitar barre chord. You will have to learn it early on as it is used in very popular keys of G and D major.
The form of Bm chord presented above is most common and correct but it is also the hardest one to play as it requires a full barre across the neck which might be tricky if you don’t have much experience with barre chords.
Fortunately there are easier versions of Bm chord, and some don’t even require barre at all!
Easy Bm chord
Full barre Bm chord might be a bit tricky to play if you had no prior experience with barre chords, so you might want to choose to play an easy (but rather simplified) version of Bm chord:
Although, this version is easy to play, it won’t sound very full because it uses only 3 bottom strings of the guitar. It will be passable for times when you really need to play a Bm chord and haven’t mastered the full barre version yet.
Use it as last resort. It is not very practical whether you play it finger style or strumming. That’s why I recommend you move to slightly more advanced (yet still easy) version of the Bm chord shown below as soon as possible.
Another easy version of Bm chord
For a slightly fuller sound that comes really close to the full barre Bm chord you can use this version:
This easy easier version of Bm chord doesn’t use barre at all. It might still be a bit tricky to play, so be patient with it.
I’d recommend you start forming the Bm chord with placing your 1st (index) and 2nd (middle) fingers on the strings first. Make sure you place those fingers nice and firm (with confidence), and then form the rest of the chord by placing 3rd and 4th fingers on the fretboard.
How to practice Bm chord
Feel free to give all 3 versions of B minor a try and see which ones suits your level the best. You can work from the easiest to the hardest version slowly and choose to use one version over the other depending on the song you are playing and chords that come before and after Bm.
Don’t worry if you can’t hold Bm (or any other chord) for long. Practice in short bursts and aim to get a clean sound at least once. Then let go of the neck. Rest you hand a bit, and repeat. It is absolutely critical that you don’t overwork your hands. If you do, your progress will stall, and you’ll hate playing guitar. So take it easy and slowly, and it will come!
It will take you some time to become confident with putting Bm chord together quickly. Once you are feeling good about it, you can start practicing chord changes. I’d suggest you practice moving from D to A to Bm to G as this is a very common context for this chord.
Bm chord theory (for extra points)
Theoretically (no pun intended), you don’t need to know any music theory to play well, but it helps to know a bit about chords especially if you’d like to play by ear at some point.
Let’s briefly review the theory behind B minor chord.
Bm chord formula
Like for any other minor chord Bm chord formula is
1 – b3 – 5
Take note the lowered 3rd. That is what makes it sound minor.
Notes in Bm chord
Bm is a simple triad that has only 3 notes:
B – D – F#
It would help you a lot if you learn all the notes of all main chords. It will come especially handy once you know notes on the fretboard. You can easily form any chord you like in any position on the fretboard.
Common chord notation
Most often B minor chord will be marked as Bm, but occasionally you might see it marked as Bmin or B−.
Common chord functions
Most obvious function for Bm is as i in B minor key, but key of B minor is not that popular in guitar music, so it is much more likely that you will encounter Bm chord in keys of D and G major which are very very popular in music.
- vi-chord in D major key
- iii-chord in G major scale
It helps to remember common chord function for every chord. And learn some chord progressions that use this chord (it will come handy in the future when you need to move from one key to another).
I’d also recommend making a point to study each key one by one. Great way to do it is to harmonize every major scale and play chords in each scale one by one.
Bm chord is not the easiest for sure. Take your time to master it. Hope this guide was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions, or need any particular help with Bm or any other chords.