Music Lessson - the Minor Chord

Following on from our Minor Scales lesson, this lesson will explain what Minor Chords are and how to find them.

C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B

The keyboard above shows the notes of the C Minor scale. Just as with major chords, the minor chord is formed by playing notes 1 3 and 5 of the scale - in the case of C minor, that means C Eb and G.

Finding Other Minor Chords - Method 1

One way of finding other Minor chords is to find the Minor scale, as we did above, and then find notes 1, 3 and 5 of the scale.
For example, in the Minor Scales lesson, we worked out the scale of D Minor :

D E F G A Bb C# D 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Notes 1 3 and 5 of this scale are D F and A - making the chord of D Minor.

Finding Other Minor Chords - Method 2

The other way we can work out where a Minor chord is, is to count the number of semitones between the notes of a chord. Look at the keyboard above and see if you can work it out :

The answer ? 3 and 4

It's 3 semitones from C to Eb, and then 4 semitones from Eb to G.

So again, to find another Minor chord, take your starting note and count up three, then four semitones. Using the same D Minor example, it's 3 semitones, from D to F, and 4 from F to A.