G Minor
m
0 - 3 - 7Root + minor 3rd + perfect 5th
About G Minor
G minor is a barre chord with no open-string escape route. Unlike A minor or E minor, there is no first-position shape that gives it away for free: the notes G, B♭ and D include a flat that the guitar does not offer open, so the hand has to go up the neck and hold.
The notes
G, B♭, D — root, minor third, perfect fifth. The B♭ is the reason this chord feels foreign on guitar: the instrument is tuned to E, A, D, G, B, E, five of which are natural and none of which is B♭. Every voicing has to fret it.
Drop the B♭ to A and you get Gsus2; raise it to B and the chord turns major. Both neighbours are easier to play, which is part of why G minor appears less often in guitar-written songs than its usefulness would justify.
Two barre positions
At the third fret with the root on the low E string — the E minor shape moved up — the chord is full and dark, with the low G ringing under it. This is the standard voicing.
At the tenth fret with the root on the A string the same chord sounds thinner and higher, and it sits where a solo usually is. Players switch between the two not for correctness but for register: the low shape supports, the high shape answers.
Where it shows up
G minor is the ii of F major, the vi of B♭ major and the iii of E♭ — all flat keys, all common in brass and piano music. That is where you meet it most: songs that came to the guitar rather than from it.
In its own key it is the tonic, and the surrounding chords — Cm, D, E♭, F — are barres almost without exception. A guitarist playing in G minor is working harder than one playing in E minor for the same musical result.