Minor Scale Chords

Hi Guitarists

After posting about how Major chords are formed from the Major scales I’ve received requests to do the same thing for Minor scale chords.

Natural Minor

Let’s us the A Minor (natural) key as an example:

The scale of A Minor is A B C D E F G

The chords of Am are: A minor B diminished C major D minor E minor F major G major

From this we are able to determine that the formula for finding chords in a Minor scale is:

1 = minor, 2 = diminished, 3 = major, 4 = minor, 5 = minor, 6 = major, 7 = major

Therefore for example if we use the scale of E Minor: E F# G A B C D and apply the formula the chords we get for E Minor are:

E minor, F# diminished, G major, A minor, B minor, C major, D major

Harmonic Minor

Let’s us the A Harmonic Minor key as an example:

The scale of A Harmonic Minor is A B C D E F G#

The chords of A Harmonic Minor are: A minor B diminished C augmented D minor E major F major G# diminished

From this we are able to determine that the formula for finding chords in a Minor scale is:

1 = minor, 2 = diminished, 3 = augmented, 4 = minor, 5 = major, 6 = major, 7 = #diminished

Therefore for example if we use the scale of E Harmonic Minor: E F# G A B C D# and apply the formula the chords we get for E Melodic Minor are:

E minor, F# diminished, G augmented, A minor, B major, C major, D# diminished

Melodic Minor

Let’s us the A Melodic Minor key as an example:

The scale of A Melodic Minor is A B C D E F# G#

The chords of A Melodic Minor are: A minor B minor C augmented D major E major F# diminished G# diminished

From this we are able to determine that the formula for finding chords in a Minor scale is:

1 = minor, 2 = minor, 3 = augmented, 4 = major, 5 = major, 6 = #diminished, 7 = #diminished

Therefore for example if we use the scale of E Harmonic Minor: E F# G A B C# D# and apply the formula the chords we get for E Harmonic Minor are:

E minor, F# diminished, G augmented, A major, B major, C# diminished, D# diminished

Hope this helps

Mike