Minor Progressions

What originally kept me from writing about the minor keys was that I worried I would add too much confusion to the readers of this blog, but it has become more apparent that for some of the songs I hoped to dive into the theory of I need to teach minor keys.

Like the Do Re Mi… pattern of the major scale, minor scales also have eight notes that follow a consistent chord pattern, but the chords are mildly more complex. Additionally, a minor key is better visualized as starting and ending on La. This means a minor scale would sound “La, Ti, Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La”. Once again, each note can be assigned a number, but not he same value as a major scale. In this case, the La would be the value one, Ti would be two, Do would be three…you get the gist. Its just more crucial to understand that the minor scale causes some of the chords to change sound a bit from what a major scale would have.

The first quality of chord in the scale is a minor one chord, which contradicts the first chord in a major scale. Following this is a diminished two and then an augmented third. Don’t worry if you do not know what these two types of chords are as I will make a deliberate effort to simplify them if they come up or skip them entirely. A fourth chord in a minor scale is minor. The fifth chord is major just like in the major scale, so this one is quite easy to remember. The sixth chord is major, followed by a diminished seven chord. Once again, you should not need to know any of the chords that are not major or minor chords.

Popular piano chord progressions

Source: Piano-Keyboard Guide

This portion of the post is only important for those who have in depth knowledge of music theory and may want to offer a correction to the terminology I am using. I referred to a minor key as if there was only one type of minor key when there are many different types with different series of chord than the ones listed above. For the music theory I am going to discuss in this blog series, I will only be covering harmonic minor chords.

Although this may feel like a lot of information now, I hope I can use the information presented in this post to analyze what some would say is the most influential song of this past year.

3 thoughts on “Minor Progressions”

  1. I have to admit, none of this made much sense to me, but then again the last time I read sheet music was when I was 11. Even still, I’m glad you tried to be as clear and simple to understand as possible. Do minor chords sound super distinct from Major chords?

    1. In my opinion they do, but there are some people who are what would be known as Tone Deaf who could not tell the difference. Growing up with music, though, the two are very distinct to me, so I am not sure I could fully answer that. Minor chords tend to sound “sadder” than those of major chords, but if you are not aware of a difference, then I am not sure you could hear one.

  2. I am no music genius, but I am familiar with harmonic, melodious, and natural minor scales (I don’t know that terminology is used in more advanced theory). When I play music, I actually prefer minor keys over major keys, because I think they can convey more emotional depth than major keys.

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