The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello!
Can you play minor chords on steel guitar? If so where can I find chord charts for them or maybe what phrase do I search on?
Thanks,
Paul

Sure you can! There's at least as many ways to play minor chords as there are tunings, which is to say...a lot.

A 6th tuning is one of the easier ways to get there...without slanting the bar. A major 6th tuning like C6 is also equivalent of a minor 7th tuning. So C6 is Am7:
C E G A C E
1 3 5 6 1 3 (C6)
b3 5 b7 1 b3 5 (Am7)

On a major triad tuning, you can either do a slant, or imply a minor chord by just doing two notes of triad and letting the rhythm section/bass fill in the rest. I asked Megan Lovell online a while back how she approaches minor chords and she said she leans more to the latter approach as slants give too much a Hawaiian sound for the styles they play in.

As for charts...what is the tuning you are using?

one easy way to think about it.

just think of a different bass note while you play your major chords you are familiar with. better still if you have a bass player.

a C chord can also be used as an A minor 7 by just thinking/playing A in the bass.

a G chord can also be used as an E minor by thinking/playing E in the bass.

a Bb chord can also be used as a G minor by thinking/playing a G in the bass.

etc. learn those relationships in yo' brain and you will now know all the minor chords without even touching your guitar. just visualize the tonic bass note moving down 3 frets and there is your minor chord using the same major chord notes you were using just hearing the bass note in your head. example. your C chord is C E G C. the bass player moves C down to A (3 frets) you just play E G C and you are playing an A-7 chord. dont play the low C as it will now get in the way of the A the bass player is playing. you can also play a C6 chord which will have the A in it and that will be E A C...A minor.

if you play an F 6 chord and someone moves to D in the bass, you leave out the low F and now your F6... A D F will work as a D minor.

always try to play an inversion of the major chord to get the tonic out of the bottom. your mileage may vary. t

Hi! Thanks Nic for replying. I don't have a band, I'm just a 78 year old looking to playing an instrument. I chose steel and lap steel guitar because of arthritis in my left hand. I could slant the bar; I had heard about that too somewhere, I forgot where. Do you know about a chart or diagram somewhere about that? I've got this old classic guitar I'm practicing on tuned to Open D. I've got a smaller acoustic coming though.

Do you mean by by major triad tuning like GBDGBD?
I don't mind the slanting at all or retuning if necessary.

Paul Handley wrote:Hi! Thanks Nic for replying. I don't have a band, I'm just a 78 year old looking to playing an instrument. I chose steel and lap steel guitar because of arthritis in my left hand. I could slant the bar; I had heard about that too somewhere, I forgot where. Do you know about a chart or diagram somewhere about that? I've got this old classic guitar I'm practicing on tuned to Open D. I've got a smaller acoustic coming though.

Do you mean by by major triad tuning like GBDGBD?
I don't mind the slanting at all or retuning if necessary.

Hey Paul, here are two suggestions for changing your tuning.
EGBGBD This is NOT a common tuning but it’s really easy to play minor and major chords. The 5 lowest notes for E minor, all 6 are E minor 7. The 5 highest strings for G major. If you play by ear, this is a great tuning. If you like to have reference material, it’s not good at all.

As has already been suggested, you should definitely consider C6. CEGACE This is a VERY common tuning. Tons of reference material. CEG is C major. ACE is A minor. The 6 strings together are C6 and Am7. You have a major triad on the bottom and a minor triad on top.

There are so many tunings you could spend your whole life with exploring them. Best advice I received, is find one tuning you like, then perfect it. Of course, I have not yet taken that advice...

I've never played in open D myself...I assume its some variant of an open triad with a D, A, and F# in some kind of order. It'll work!

One idea to get you going...check out Troy Brenningmeyer's videos. He has videos of dobro tuning (GBDGBD) and C6.

Looks like he also has open D too...maybe just view some of the "free samples" to get started, see if you pick up on any good tips!
https://www.lessonswithtroy.com/Lap-Ste ... In-Open-D/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quk3mZgxuLo

Open D? Easy, drop your F# down to an F and your in D minor. Your tuning would now be DADFAD. I really like A6 tuning for minor stuff myself.

Nic Neufeld wrote:I've never played in open D myself...I assume its some variant of an open triad with a D, A, and F# in some kind of order. It'll work!

One idea to get you going...check out Troy Brenningmeyer's videos. He has videos of dobro tuning (GBDGBD) and C6.

Looks like he also has open D too...maybe just view some of the "free samples" to get started, see if you pick up on any good tips!
https://www.lessonswithtroy.com/Lap-Ste ... In-Open-D/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quk3mZgxuLo

Open D is (usually) DADF#AD which is 151351 in Nashville numbering.
Frequently tuned Open E instead; EBEG#BE and occasionally up to F; FCFACF

Since the "3" only appears once, it's easy to fake minor chords by simply skipping that string.

Hi Paul

You asked if there is a 'chart or diagram somewhere'. Here's a website you might find useful. It's John Ely's Chord Locator for Steel Guitar. Basically you select your tuning, specify a key, and then select from a number of bar options, such as 'straight', 'forward' or 'reverse' slant. It will then generate a diagram of possible chord positions. You must also specify if you want to see the results in tab formation or as a fretboard diagram.

I notice it also provides an option to provide a custom tuning. So it's pretty versatile.

http://hawaiiansteel.com/chordlocator/generic.php

John's chord app is definitely useful. Troy Brenningmyer sells a PDF of chords in Open D and my book "Exploring Open D" also has a section on chords.

Here are a couple of things that may be helpful ....



You can play the b3rd and the 7th to suggest a minor chord or use an arpeggio like this cool one I cribbed from Dobro and Pedal Steel master Pete Grant.

Paul, I don't think you told us what tuning you're using. If you're playing in a six-string open tuning like E or G, you can slide up three frets, and "suggest' a minor chord.

D Schubert wrote:Paul, I don't think you told us what tuning you're using. If you're playing in a six-string open tuning like E or G, you can slide up three frets, and "suggest' a minor chord.

What a great suggestion!

For newer players, here’s how this works.

Let’s say we’re tuned to Open D. D = D F# A
When you strum all the open strings every string will be either a D, an F# or an A.

To play D minor we need to flatten the 3rd, from F# to F
D minor = D F A, and D minor 7 = D F A C.

Now let’s slide up three frets. Three frets up from D is F. F major = F A C
So, with the bar across the 3rd fret, every string will be either an F, an A, or a C.
To play a D minor, you can (usually) play Dm7. F major = Dm7 without the D!

Voila! Three frets up from every major chord is the rootless minor 7 of the same chord; and nine times out of ten, your bass player is going to hit the root for you.

Paul, if you are used to playing in Dobro tuning, GBDGBD, there are a couple other easy ways to play minor chords. Both ways involve playing only pairs of strings instead of triads.

1) Don’t play the B strings. On open strings this would give you a G5 or Gsus chord. Without the 3rd, the chord is neither major nor minor and can be used for either.

2) Don’t play the G strings. Again, with open strings, B & D are the 1 & 3 of a B minor chord. By skipping the G strings you can go up the neck starting from open B minor, instead of open G major.

Anyway, as you can see there are lots of ways to play minor chords on lap steel, whether by changing your tuning, or by clever use of the fretboard.

Good luck on your adventure!

This might help you..
https://youtu.be/vqelUmcooLY