A minor chords are an indispensable tool in any musician’s toolkit, representing one of the most expressive sounds that pianos can produce, creating different emotions and atmospheres within music.
Each major chord and scale has an accompanying minor version – all it takes to produce it is to lower the middle note by one semitone.
A Minor
Although all 12 minor and major keys sound the same when played, each has its own distinctive sound due to the different chord voicings for open position chords as well as scale types (modes).
A minor is often associated with feelings of melancholy and sadness due to its slightly flatter pitches compared to C Major, giving it more mournful overtones.
A minor notes form the natural minor scale, which is based on the circle of fifths. As with its major counterpart, the natural minor has both whole and half steps with unique solfege syllables distinct from those used by major scales.
C Minor
C minor is a key with many moving parts, so getting used to its rhythm takes some practice and understanding how scale tones interact, particularly when considering augmented and diminished chords. Once this knowledge has been acquired, moving between different keys on the piano opens up new worlds of musical expression.
C minor keys can often create an atmosphere of melancholy and nostalgia in music, as well as being well suited for lyrical/songwriter-type songs with lyrics containing emotional resonance, such as Adele’s “Rollin’ in the Deep”. They add tension that gives these types of songs their dramatic edge – these qualities were beautifully employed in her “Rollin’ in the Deep.”
Learn the diatonic chords of a minor key, and you’ll discover they can be combined in many creative ways to form interesting harmonic progressions. Use Captain Chords to see just how easy it is to combine different chords from within one key and explore its creative possibilities!
E Minor
The E minor chord features a darker sound that can create feelings of tension and unease. It is frequently used as the tonic chord in progressions and followed by other chords for added movement and anticipation.
E minor is a seven-note diatonic scale beginning and ending on E, its relative major key being G major and including one sharp note: F#.
Practice chord progressions and voicings in this key to create your own distinctive musical language. Experiment with dynamics and phrasing for added emotion and depth in your playing; use progressions as building blocks for more complex compositions.
Remember that you can move the shapes we’ve already learned up and down the fretboard, just by finding their root notes on either the low E or A string and using appropriate shapes from there to construct chords – for instance if your root note lies on E string you would use E minor shape at fret 1; or try pushing first finger across all strings simultaneously to form barre chords.
G Minor
G Minor chord is one of the less frequent minor chords used in modern music, yet it can provide an acerbic or menacing sound when required. Commonly used in EDM, Drum n Bass, Heavy Metal styles of music to convey malice or disquiet; but you might also find this chord used pop songs such as Will.i.Am Ft Justin Bieber’s That Power or Borgore’s New Gore Order among others.
Many musicians employ G Minor by adding notes beyond its root note, known as flavor notes, which help bridge gaps between chords by moving lower notes up and down the scale.
Learn more by studying the Circle of Fifths worksheet for G Minor key. It contains two flats – B Flat and E Flat – so study their function to get an in-depth knowledge of how this key operates and can be utilized in your compositions.