505 chords

How to play 505

Play 505 with D minor and E minor, using standard tuning and no capo. This page gives you an open-chord practice version of the two-chord harmony. The four-box loop holds each chord for two four-beat bars. Start by changing on time, with one quiet attack at the beginning of a box, before trying to recreate the recording’s gradual build.

Hear both minor chords

Dm contains D, F and A. Em contains E, G and B. Keep the little m on both symbols: D major would replace F with F#, while E major would replace G with G#. Those changes would give you a different pair of chords, even if the root notes still moved from D to E.

There is a useful colour in the B natural of Em. A D natural minor scale contains Bb, so Em does not fit wholly inside that scale. Relative to D, B natural is a raised sixth and gives this two-chord exercise a Dorian colour. Listen to the actual chords rather than forcing the second one to become E diminished to fit a scale pattern. The page’s Dm key label names the minor centre of this practice arrangement.

Change the lowest string you strike

The Dm diagram is x-x-0-2-3-1, read from low E to high E. Begin the sweep at the open fourth string. Keep your index fingertip curved enough for the first-fret F to ring, without touching the adjacent second string. Pick the upper strings individually once before sweeping across the whole shape.

Em is 0-2-2-0-0-0, so all six strings can sound. Moving from Dm to Em therefore changes both hands’ jobs: the fretting hand builds a new grip, and the picking hand reaches two strings lower. On the return, narrow the sweep again. Practise that pair slowly with a clear D bass on Dm rather than accidentally leaving a low E underneath it.

Keep counting through the repeated boxes

The printed line is Dm–Dm–Em–Em. Each box is one 4/4 bar, so count eight quarter-note beats on Dm and eight on Em. The repeated symbol means another bar of the same chord. It does not ask you to release and rebuild the grip at the bar line.

The player uses a 90 BPM practice pulse here because no recording tempo is specified. Its plain downstrokes are a counting aid; they do not transcribe the organ part, every guitar accent or the recorded ending. If the change is late, practise away from the loop at a slower metronome setting. Add a fuller sweep only after you can return to Dm without an extra pause. The chart is a repeating harmony exercise, rather than a complete performance route.

Try movable grips after the open version

The diagrams on this page show the open chords. For a separate barre exercise, Dm can be played x-5-7-7-6-5 and Em x-7-9-9-8-7. These use the same minor shape, with roots on the fifth string. Move the whole shape two frets and keep the low sixth string silent. Check that every string under the barre rings before trying to slide at speed.

Both options keep the same chord qualities, but put their notes in different octaves and on different strings. Compare the open and movable versions at a similar volume. Effects can add space later; they will not correct a major third played where a minor third belongs. If you use the transpose control, reset it before comparing the result with the fret numbers above.

The Dm/Em chord pair and open-versus-barre approach were checked against Andy Guitar’s 505 lesson. The four-bar layout and counting exercises above are this page’s practice arrangement.