We already know that the I, IV and V chords go together, but which minor chords do we need to add to the mix?
- The relative minor chord is the minor chord based on the 6th note of the Major scale.
- It fits well with the 1st, 4th and 5th chords.
- You can work out which is the relative minor of any chord on the cigar box guitar by counting down 3 frets as shown in this table:
Adding The VI Chord To The I, IV, V Chord Progression
When we learned how to play power chords in these articles How To Play A Cigar Box Guitar With One Finger and Easy Chords For a Cigar Box Guitar Part 1 we concentrated on the I, IV, V or 1, 4, 5 progression. Now we are going to add in the VI or 6 chord.
This 6 chord is the relative minor and will add color to your playing whether you just use the 1 finger power chords or if you add the little finger on the 3rd fret above the barre to play a minor chord.
Let’s look at an example:
In the key of C Major we tend to play these chords in a song:
| number of chord | I | IV or 4 | V or 5 | VI or 6 |
| name of chord | C Major | F Major | G7 | A minor |
| fret number for power chord barre in G D G tuning | 5th | 10th | 12th | 2nd |
If we look at the table at the top of the page you can see that to find the relative minor of any Major chord you just count down 3 frets from the fret number for the bass note that corresponds to the 1st note of the Major scale. So we count down from the 5th fret to the 2nd fret. This is the same fret number as the power chord is played on.
Another example, this time in the key of A major:
| number of chord | I | IV or 4 | V or 5 | VI or 6 |
| name of chord | A Major | D Major | E7 | F# minor |
| fret number for power chord barre in G D G tuning | 2nd | 7th | 9th | 11th |
Note that in this example we have to play the F# minor on the 11th fret as we can’t count down 3 from the 2nd fret. So here is another trick to help you:
If you can’t count down 3 frets, add 12 to the fret number and count back 3 from that. So the 2nd fret becomes 2+12 = 14 and we count back 3 frets to get to the 11th fret.
Chords That Go Together
So that you can easily see the I, IV, V and VI chords for any particular key I have created this table.
You can download this chart:
You can play these groups of 4 chords as power chords or add in the different chord shapes for major, 7th and minor chords. Here are links to articles that show you how to play these chords:
How Do I Play Major Chords On A Cigar Box Guitar?
How Do I Play The 7th Chord On A Cigar Box Guitar?
How Do I Play Minor Chords On A Cigar Box Guitar?
I intend to produce downloads of chord chart pdfs for these groups of four chords with alternative fingerings included.
Playing In A Minor Key
Of course, some songs are written completely in a minor key rather than just adding in the 6 chord. We can use what we have learned about how chords go together to see how minor chords fit into groups of related chords:
You will see that we will now play a minor 7th if we are being picky and my article above on how to play the 7th chord includes a movable chord shape for a minor 7th chord.
But remember that the great thing about cigar box guitars in open tuning is that you can substitute a power chord for a major, minor, 7th or minor 7th chord- it really depends on your choice and the sound you want.
Don’t get hung up on playing an exact chord from guitar tab you find online- experiment to see what sounds good to you!