minor chord progression?

[steelstring]

Do the rules regarding chord progresson in the major scale apply to chord progessions in the minor scale?

ex. C-scale, C,D,E,F,G,A,B....chords progress C,Dm,Em,F,G,Am,Bdim

So Cm scale is ?........ and C minor chord progression?..........you fill in the blank........thanks, this site rocks

[geffen]

cm scale - c d d# f g g# a# c
cm chords - cm dmdim d#maj fm gm g#maj a#maj

[steelstring]

how did you derive those chords from that scale???

[deftones]

Originally posted by geffen
cm scale - c d d# f g g# a# c
cm chords - cm dmdim d#maj fm gm g#maj a#maj

although what you wrote is correct, it should actually be

C D Eb F G Ab Bb C

hence making the chords

Cmin Ddim Ebmaj Fmin Gmin Abmaj Bbmaj

[steelstring]

So from my understanding then......
minor chord progression is as follows minor,dim,maj,minor,minor,maj,maj........
does this pattern work for all minor scales?

[deftones]

Originally posted by steelstring
how did you derive those chords from that scale???

Chords for the major scale go Major Minor Minor Major Major Minor Diminished.

so the C major scale chords are

Cmaj Dmin Emin Fmaj Gmaj Amin Bdim.

the minor scale is the Aeolain mode of a major scale. the minor scale is based around the 6th note in a major scale. so the Aeolian mode of the C major scale is A minor.

so the A minor scale is

A B C D E F G A

now to figure out the chords for the scale. since A is the 6th note of the scale you would start the chords on the 6th one. so instead of Maj Min Min Maj Maj Min Dim, its Min Dim Maj Min Min Maj Maj.

so the A minor chords are

Amin Bdim Cmaj Dmin Emin Fmaj Gmaj.

sorry if thats confusing at all.

[geffen]

right

[deftones]

Originally posted by steelstring
So from my understanding then......
minor chord progression is as follows minor,dim,maj,minor,minor,maj,maj........
does this pattern work for all minor scales?

to the very best of my knowledge, yes.

[steelstring]

Got it, deftones u r a genius........

[geffen]

it works for natural minor. harmonic minor uses min, dim, aug, min, Maj, Maj, dim

and melodic = min, min, aug, maj, maj, dim, dim

[steelstring]

Whats aug?

[geffen]

augmented. 1 3 #5

an easy way to play one with the root on the e string is

--
--
--
-1-
-2-
-3-

Gaug or G+

[John Prophet]

Quote

So from my understanding then......
minor chord progression is as follows minor,dim,maj,minor,minor,maj,maj........
does this pattern work for all minor scales?

This pattern works for the Aeolian mode...which is also called the "natural minor" scale and is usually what is meant when someone simply says the "minor scale"

Actually, this maybe a little far out sounding, but for the normal 7 diatonic modes the ORDER of those chords never changes.

(I see another long post coming, oh no)

For example I will list the chords in C major

cmaj, dmin, emin, fmaj, gmaj, Aminor, Bdim,

Now i will list all the chords in A aeolian

Aminor, Bdim, cmaj, dmin, emin, fmaj, gmaj

if you compare those two lists of chords you will see that they are identical...the only difference is the starting point...one started on cmaj and the other on a minor.

There is an order the modes appear in always and there is a little saying to memorize them.

here is the order Ionian, Dorian, Phyrgian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, locrian

And the saying is derived from the first letter of each mode

"If dora plays like me all's lost"

So if we start on c major and list all the modes of c major we get these...

C major (Ionian), D dorian, e phyrgian, f lydian, g mixolydian, a aeolian, b locrian.

So the chord sequence is the same for all these modes..just starting on a different step in the scale...so if I wanted to list a G mixolydian mode and then its chords it would smply be like this.

g,a,b,c,d,e,f and the chords would be the same sequence as for the major scale above except STARTING on the 5th chord (since mixolydian is the 5th mode of major) so the chords would be maj,min,dim,maj,min,min,maj

Quote "how did you derive those chords from that scale???"

Easy...list out the scale like this c,d,e,f,g,a,b,c,d,e,f,g,a

(its easier if you list out a couple octaves)

Now, to form the chords for this scale just start at each scale tone and take every other note for 3 notes

like this for c chord take every other note for 3 notes...C E G...thats a cmaj chord

Now we know the next chord will be minor so lets start on d and take every other note for 3 notes...D F A...yep, d minor

And so on for every note of the scale.

Now, the last tidbit you may not know yet...how to figure out what notes are in the scale itself

Well we can list out the chromatic scale which is every note

c,c#,d,d#,e,f,f#,g,g#,a,a#,b 12 notes

Now for a major scale this is the pattern for getting the notes

w-w-h-w-w-w-h Ok, this is referring to the number of "whole steps"
and "half steps" that make up the major scale. A whole step is 2 frets, a half step is 1 fret.

So lets try a different key to check it out..lets try G major

S starting with G and using this pattern w-w-h-w-w-w-h we get..

G (whole step to) A (whole step to) B (half step to) C etc etc

For a minor (aeolian) scale the pattern is w-h-w-w-h-w-w

if you want to know the pattern for another mode just start on the pattern for major w-w-h-w-w-w-h and start on the step representing the mode you want to list

For instance we know the dorian is the 2nd mode of a major scale so we start the pattern for dorian on the 2nd step of the pattern for major...giving us this for dorian...w-h-w-w-w-h-w


there is a lot of good stuff in this thread so take your time and digest it slowly...it would be a good one to save in your favorites as "Scale and chord construction" or similar.


keep rockin, JP

[steelstring]

WOW man thats about 1 year of theory in a paragraph.....thanks

[John Prophet]

Send all donations to.......

[wild_axeman]

Minor key harmony is based on Natural Minor(Aeolian),Harmonic Minor,and Melodic Minor.You have to learn about all three of them as they are all part of the minor system of harmony within a minor key.
Look it up cause it's too big a topic to type up right now :D

[Runer]

Although, as the name implies, the harmonic minor is the most commmonly used minor form in tonal harmony.

*Generally* the seventh is raised in tonal music, and this allows for a major V chord in a minor key. But again, this is *generally* ^_^

So in minor, you would commonly see:

i iidim III (see note**) iv V VI viidim (i)

**Even though the 7th is raised in order to get a major V chord, III+ chords are rarely seen.