Chords in the Key of A Minor
Every diatonic triad and seventh chord in A minor, with the progressions built from them. Free. No sign-up.
Key facts
Diatonic triads
Seventh chords
Stack one more scale tone on each triad and you get the seventh chords — same key, more color.
Common progressions in A minor
i–VI–III–VII
Am – F – C – G
The minor pop loop — same four chords as the major axis, started from the minor side.
i–iv–v
Am – Dm – Em
The minor blues shape — all three chords stay minor in the natural scale.
i–VII–VI
Am – G – F
The descending rock lament, one whole step at a time.
i–iv–VII–III
Am – Dm – G – C
A circle-of-fifths descent — each root falls a fifth to the next.
How the key of A minor works
A Minor carries no sharps or flats — all seven notes are naturals. The scale runs A–B–C–D–E–F–G, and stacking every other note of that scale builds the seven chords above without borrowing a single note from outside the key.
C Major is the relative major: identical key signature, identical seven chords. Treat C — the III chord here — as home base and you are in C major without changing a note.
The parallel major, A Major, keeps the same root but raises the third, sixth, and seventh — its signature shifts to three sharps (F#, C# and G#). Moving a section from minor to parallel major is one of the oldest brightness tricks in songwriting.
Playing A minor on guitar
In A minor, Am, C, Dm, Em and G are open chords you can play in first position. F needs a barre shape or a capo. The diminished Bdim is usually played as a small three-string shape rather than a full chord.
You rarely need a capo here, but one moves the same progression onto different open shapes and a different voicing. The i–VI–III–VII progression (Am – F – C – G) with a capo:
Capo 5 · play it as E minor
Em – C – G – D
4 of 4 shapes are open chords.
Capo 3 · play it as F# minor
F#m – D – A – E
3 of 4 shapes are open chords.
Capo 10 · play it as B minor
Bm – G – D – A
3 of 4 shapes are open chords.
Where A minor sits on the neck
The root, A, is fret 5 on the low E string and the open A string, the two places most minor barre shapes and scale positions in A minor are built from.
All six open strings are notes of A minor, so any of them can ring against a fretted line without clashing.
The open low E (the fifth), A (the root) and high E (the fifth) strings make a drone you can let ring under riffs and melodies in this key.
One note separates A minor from each neighbour on the circle of fifths. Raise F to F# and you are in E minor; lower B to Bb and you are in D minor. Those are the two keys a song in A minor most often modulates to.
Songs in A minor
From the song library, these recordings sound in A minor:
- Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin
- House of the Rising Sun, The Animals
Keep practicing
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