G Minor guitar chord
Three notes across one string set.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Gm — triad voicings
Gm is G, Bb and D — G with the third lowered a semitone.
It sounds darker than a major triad, and just as settled. The i of a minor key, and the vi, ii or iii of a major one.
Gm notes and formula
| G | Bb | D |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 |
Tonic — minor chords rest as readily as major ones.
Also written Gmin, G- or G minor. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gm
Three notes on one string set. No seventh, so nothing is claimed about the chord beyond its quality.
Thin on their own, excellent over a bass line or against someone else’s harmony.
Gm has 48 of them, on the bottom three strings, the low-middle three, the bottom four strings, the middle four strings, the high-middle three, the top three strings, the top four strings, strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 15th — every inversion the chord has: G in the bass, Bb in the bass and D in the bass. The one to learn first is the G shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
6 of them sit on the bottom four strings, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with xx5786 — no barre and low, at the 5th fret. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. 3 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 310033 | open position | G, root position | G | barred |
| 355333 | 3rd fret | G, root position | G | barred |
| xx5333 | 3rd fret | G, root position | G | barred |
| xx5786 | 5th fret | G, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| xx8786 | 6th fret | Bb, 1st inversion | Bb | all fretted |
| x-10-8-7-8-x | 7th fret | G, root position | G | all fretted |
| x-10-12-12-11-10 | 10th fret | G, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-13-12-12-11-x | 11th fret | Bb, 1st inversion | Bb | all fretted |
| 15-13-12-12-x-15 | 12th fret | G, root position | G | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Gm
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Gm is Am7♭5 to D7♭9: the ii and the V of G minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Gm belongs to C minor (the v), D minor (the iv), Eb major (the iii), F major (the ii), G minor (the i) and Bb major (the vi).
What to play over Gm
Every note of Gm is in G minor pentatonic, G blues, G dorian, G natural minor and G phrygian.
Chords near Gm
Change one note of Gm and you have G (the minor third becomes a major third), Gdim (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Gsus2 (the minor third becomes a ninth), Gsus4 (the minor third becomes a fourth), Gm6 (add the sixth) or Gm7 (add the flat seventh).
Gm is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Gm’s sound and use this page follows Edward Aldwell & Carl Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading (Schirmer / Cengage, 4th ed., 2011). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.