D minor is D, F, and A. One finger on fret 1 is the change from D major. Look at the first picture.
x means muted. 0 means open.
Short code xx0231, thickest string first.
D minor uses the notes D, A and F.
More D guitar chords.
Also D major, D dominant 7, D major 7, D minor 7, D suspended 2, D suspended 4, D power chord, D diminished, D augmented.
Short code 557765, thickest string first.
Barre fret 5 with the index finger on the low E, A and high E strings.
D minor uses the notes A, D and F.
Both pictures are D, F, and A. That is D minor. The first picture mutes the two thick strings, like the first D major, and has no barre. The second picture bars fret 5. Same three notes. The barre shape has more bass, so it often sounds fuller.
If the D minor in a song sounds fuller than the first picture, try the barre picture lower on this page. It is still D minor.
F is the note that makes this chord minor instead of major. On the first picture that F is on the high E string, fret 1, index finger. Play D major after this. On D major that note is F sharp. Listen for F turning into F sharp.
Play each line in order.
D minor (Dm) and G minor (Gm) stay in the sad room. Then A major (A) lights up and yanks you home so hard it can raise the hair on your arms. Sad folk, Spanish-flavored guitar, and a lot of film music from the 60s on use that bright last lean. It feels like crying with your back straight.
Dm is the mood. B flat major (Bb), F major (F), and C major (C) refuse to let the song stop and cry in the corner. It feels like washing dishes after a hard day with a pop song on: not happy, not wrecked, still going. A lot of 2010s pop and alternative radio lives right here.
The chords walk down like stairs, then A major flips a light. Rock and dramatic pop — think late-70s through 80s radio — love that walk into a sudden bright chord. Held breath, then a yes. Skin can jump.
Stays sad the whole way. C major is a window, not a rescue. Folk and rock ballads that do not want a happy ending. A porch at dusk, not a dance floor.
F major shows up brighter, like a cousin who still smiles. Then C major, then back into Dm. 1990s and 2000s pop that wants a little daylight inside a sad song. Not cheerful. Not hopeless.
Listen for this chord, then use the grip on this page.
D minor sits in this Dire Straits song. The recording is in D minor. It also uses C major, B flat major, A major, and F major. The verse is D minor, C major, B flat major, A major. The chorus is F major, C major, B flat major.
D minor is the first chord of the verse and the chord the song keeps coming back to.
Dire Straits put Sultans of Swing out in 1978, on their first album. D minor is the home chord. It is the chord the verse starts on.
Mark Knopfler wrote it in 1977. He had gone into a pub in Deptford, South London, on a rainy night. A small Dixieland jazz band was playing in the corner. Almost nobody was listening. At the end, someone said they were the Sultans of Swing. Knopfler told Brian Johnson he found that funny, because they could not have looked less like sultans in that pub, on that night.
He went back to the flat he shared with his brother David Knopfler and bassist John Illsley. He wrote the song there. At first he played it on a National steel guitar and thought it was dull. In 1977 he bought a 1961 Fender Stratocaster. He told Guitar World the song came alive on that guitar, and the new chord changes fell into place.
D minor is the chord you sit on at the start of the verse. Then you play C major, B flat major, and A major.