How to Play a B Minor Chord on the Ukulele
I hope you’ve been keeping up with our series on ukulele chords for beginners because in this part we’ll being taking things on step further with a challenging chord.
All beginners start out with the same chords and those chords only require you to fret one note at a time with each finger (e.g. in the F chord, your middle finger only has to hold down the G string and your index finger only has to hold down the E string). Today’s chord is more tricky.
In order to play the B minor chord you will have to fret more than one string with a single finger. How do you do that? All will become clear.
Barring Strings
Barre chords are those that require you to lay your finger across two or more strings in order to play the chord. B minor chord is such a chord.
In order to create a barre take your index finger (or ‘pointer’ finger if you prefer) and lay it across all four of the ukulele strings at the third fret. Press it down so that all the strings are firmly held against the neck of the ukulele.
Now play each string individually. By playing one note at a time, you’ll be able to tell which strings you are not holding down correctly. If the chord doesn’t sound right at first, don’t worry. Everyone takes some time before they can fret a barre with all the notes ringing clearly.
Just carry on adjusting the position of your finger and how hard you are holding down the strings until you can get a clear sound on every string of the ukulele.
How To Play B Minor
In order to play a B minor chord (usually referred to as Bm), you need to create a barre with your index finger across the second fret. Once you have that sounding clearly, use your ring finger to play the G string at the fourth fret.
Adding this extra note may affect your hand position and mean that the chord doesn’t sound right. Change your hand position and try adding a little extra pressure until it sounds correct again.
