How to Play the Abm Guitar Chord For Beginners

Want to learn how to play the A flat minor guitar chord? We’re going to show you how! 

In this free guitar lesson you will learn:

• 4 quick & easy ways to play the Abm guitar chord.
• The no1 secret to learning chords quickly.
• 3 top chord hacks which will make your chords sound amazing.

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The two most common ways to play an Abm guitar chord are:

• Abm guitar chord. (Em barre shape.)
• Abm guitar chord. (Am barre shape.)

Let’s learn them.

Both of these chords are barre chords.

Abm Guitar Chord (Em Shape)

We refer to this barre chord as the ‘Em barre shape’ because it is based on an Em chord.

Let’s compare.

Here’s a Em chord:

Learn to play this chord here: 4 Easy Ways To Play The Em Guitar Chord

Here’s the Abm guitar chord. (Em barre shape.)

Can you see how the regular Em shape fits within the the Abm guitar chord?

To play this chord:

• Barre your 1st finger over ALL the strings on the 4th fret.
• Place your 3rd finger on the 6th fret of the A string. (5th string.)
• Place your 4th finger on the 6th fret of the D string. (4th string.)

This chord is also known as the ‘Abm guitar chord (root note on the low E string)’.

This is because the root note can be found on the low E string. (6th string.)

Abm Guitar Chord (Am Shape)

In the guitar world, we refer to this barre chord shape as the ‘Am shape’. This is because this chord is based on a standard Am chord.

Here’s an Am chord:

Learn the Am chord here: Am Guitar Chord For Beginners

Here’s the Abm guitar chord. (Am barre shape.)

To play this chord:

• Barre your first finger on the 11th fret from the A string (5th string) to the high E string. (1st string.)
• Place your 3rd finger on the 13th fret of the D string. (4th string.)
• Place your 4th finger on the 13th fret of the G string. (3rd string.)
• Place your 2nd finger on the 12th fret of the B string. (2nd string.)
• Strum from the A string. (5th string.)

This chord can also be called:

• Abm guitar chord. (Root on the A string.)

This is because the root note of this chord is found on the A string. (5th string.)

Learn more about root notes here: Guitar Notes Explained: A Guide For Beginners

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If you don’t know how to barre chords, watch this video:

Quick Tip!

In music, whenever you see a lowercase ‘b’ you pronounce it like this, ‘flat’.

So the correct way to pronounce the Ab minor guitar chord would be like this: ‘A flat minor chord’.

Minor chords can be written in a variety of different ways. Here are a few examples:

• Ab minor.
• A flat minor.
• Abm. (The lower case ‘m’ stands for minor!)

Now we’ve learned how to play the two most popular ways to play the A flat minor chord, let’s learn some easy versions.

Believe it or not, playing guitar is good for you! Check out this article by Guitar Player to find out how: 10 Reasons Why Playing Guitar Is Good For Your Mind And Body