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7 Minor Piano Chords That You Should Start With if You’re a Beginner

 

The sound of minor chords is often associated with solemnity and sadness. Think Bruno Mars’s, “When I was your man” or Adele’s, “Someone like you.

In this post, I am going to show you a couple of minor piano chords which are very popular in a lot of good songs. I will show you how to play these minor chords in the simplest form of chord called the triad.

 

A minor, E minor and D minor

Just to recap, the major triad chord consists of the root, 3rd and 5th note of its scale. In the minor triad chord, the root and 5th notes remain the same but the 3rd note is lowered by a semitone. Read on to see what this means.

Let’s start with these simple four minor keys, A minor, E minor and D minor. First, let’s take a look at the key signatures of each of these keys:

  • A minor – No sharp or flats.
  • E minor – F#
  • D minor – Bb

 

When playing the scale of these keys, the sharp and flat must be played accordingly. However, when playing the triad chord of these keys, there is no sharp of flat.

For the key of A minor, the scale consists of the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, G and back to A.

In the A major triad chord, the notes are A, C# and E. When the A major is changed to A minor, the triad chord now consists of the notes A, C, and E. This is because the 3rd note which is C# in the major triad has been lowered by a semitone which makes it C in the A minor triad.

To help you remember the minor triad chords better, there are always two keys in between the root and the 3rd key and three keys (regardless they are black or white keys) in between the 3rd and the 5th keys. This is the basis of how a minor triad chord is formed.

Here are the notes that made up the triads for A minor, E minor and D minor:

chords-to_be_cropped-8-1

 

C minor, F minor, G minor and B minor

If you are ready, let’s learn four more minor triad chords which have one flat or sharp in them.

The four chords are C minor, F minor, G minor and B minor. First, let’s look at their key signatures:

  • G minor – Bb, Eb
  • C minor – Bb, Eb, Ab
  • F minor – Bb, Eb, Ab, Db
  • B minor – F#, C#

 

Let’s use G minor as an example. The scale of G minor consists of the notes G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F and back to G.

In G major, the triad chord consists of the notes G, B and D. So when G major becomes G minor, the triad would now consist of the notes, G, Bb and D. This is because the note B has been lowered a semitone lower to become Bb.

Here are the notes that made up the triads of these keys:

chords-to_be_cropped-8-2

chords-to_be_cropped-9-1

To learn more about minor chords, check out my post on Learn Piano Chords in Just 10 Minutes.

However, if you can’t wait already, click on the button below to download the 2 songs that you can start playing today! Have fun and keep playing!

Chord Sheets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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