Diatonic Chords in a Minor Key
Constructing diatonic chords from a natural minor scale is very similar to constructing diatonic chords from a major key. In fact, because of the relative minor rule, if you know the diatonic chords in a major key then you also know them in a minor key. There are just a few differences between major and minor that this tutorial will cover.
Diatonic chords are chords that occur naturally within a key. Knowing how to find which chords work in a key has probably been my biggest eye opening moment. Once I was told how it works all my questions about which chords to use in within a certain key were answered.
Finding the Chords
Minor scales, as with major scales, have seven notes. Since each of these notes can be the root of a chord there are also seven diatonic chords. To make a chord, or triad, pick a starting note and count every other note above of it two times; this is called stacking thirds. Here’s an example:
Here’s the G minor scale:
G – A – Bb – C – D – Eb – F
If you want to make a diatonic chord off of the second note in the scale, A, you would stack two thirds on top of it (see bold letters):
G – A – Bb – C – D – Eb – F
That gives you A – C – Eb, which is an Adim chord, as the diatonic chord based off of the second note of the scale.
Now that you know how diatonic chords are created from the notes in a minor scale I’ll show you the rule which makes finding the chords quicker and easier. The numerals below indicate if the chord based off of each scale degree is major (uppercase), minor (lowercase), or diminished (lowercase w/°). These will hold true for every minor key.
Natural Minor Scale Diatonic Chords
i – ii° – III – iv – v – VI – VII
Harmonic / Melodic Minor Scale Diatonic Chords
i – ii° – III – IV – V – VI – VII
The reason that the natural and harmonic/melodic minor chords differ is because the altering of the 6th and 7th scale degree in the harmonic/melodic minor scales change the outcome of the diatonic chords. For more information check out the tutorial on minor scales.