Triads
B minor chord
Darker and more melancholy than major, but just as stable.
Bm is the ii chord in A major, iii in G major and vi in D major. In minor keys: i in B minor and iv in F♯ minor.
- Notes
- BDF♯
- Formula
- 1♭35
- Built from
- root · minor 3rd · perfect 5th
How to play Bm
About the B minor chord
B minor is the relative minor of D major and appears constantly in songs in D and G. For many guitarists it’s the barre chord they’re forced to learn first.
Playing it
There’s no open-string way to play Bm on guitar with the root in the bass, so the standard shape is a barre across the 2nd fret (x24432).
On piano, Bm has one black key (F♯) and two white keys.
On ukulele the usual Bm shape is 4222, with a small 3-string barre at the 2nd fret.
Related chords
Bm shares two of its three notes with D (D and F♯), its relative major, and with G (B and D). That overlap is why these chords sound so natural next to each other — and why they can often stand in for one another.
Move a single note and Bm becomes a different chord: raise D to D♯ for B, add A for Bm7, swap D for E for Bsus4 and lower D to C♯ for Bsus2.
Where you’ll hear it
You’ll find Bm in common progressions such as Bm–G–D–A (the minor-feel pop progression in D major), Bm–Em–F♯–Bm (the minor cadence in B minor) and Bm–A–G–F♯ (the Andalusian cadence in B minor).
