The 3 Minor Chords
Mar 22nd, 2008 by admin
The 3 Minor Chords
Didn’t I say that most songs could be played with just 3 chords? In fact, the 3 basic chords may be “tweaked” a little bit here and there to give us many more other chords! As for now, let’s look at 3 minor chords that can be derived from these 3 basic chords.
We have talked about playing a note or an octave with our left hand in my post called “The Left Hand” earlier. For example, for a C chord on the right hand, we would play a C note or a C octave with the left hand. Now, Let’s tweak this a little…
If you play a C chord with your right hand, and an A note or an A octave instead with the left hand, you will get an A minor7 chord, which sounds pretty much like an A minor chord. This is how we can play a minor chord without having to learn something totally new on our right hand. All you have to remember is that the A note on your left hand must be accompanied with the C chord on the right hand.
Similarly, you can play a D minor by playing a D note with the left hand accompanied by an F chord with your right hand. Playing an E note with your left hand together with a G chord with your right hand will give you an E minor.
Figure 1: A minor (Am)
Figure 2: D minor (or Dm)
Figure 3: E minor (or Em)
So, with that, we have derived the 3 minor chords, Am, Dm and Em from our 3 basic chords.
In the C key, D is the 2nd note (“re”). Therefore, the Dm chord is considered II minor (II m) of C key. E is the 3rd note (“me”) in the C key. Therefore, in the C key, Em chord is the III minor (III m). Similarly, as A is the 6th note (”la”), and therefore Am is considered the VI minor (VI m).
To recap…
VI minor chord (VI m) = 6th bass note (left hand) + 1st chord, I (right hand)
II minor chord (II m) = 2nd bass note (left hand) + 4th chord, IV (right hand)
III minor chord (III m) = 3rd bass note (left hand) + 5th chord, V (right hand)
Deriving the above 3 minor chords (II m, III m and VI m) this way allows us to quickly produce these chords in any key, without having to learn 3 new chords on the right hand. This is provided, of course, that we are familiar with the 3 basic (major) chords (I, IV, and V) of that key.
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Hi Dude,
Your way of teaching is very good!
Thank you!