Chords in the Key of E Minor
Every diatonic triad and seventh chord in E 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 E minor
i–VI–III–VII
Em – C – G – D
The minor pop loop — same four chords as the major axis, started from the minor side.
i–iv–v
Em – Am – Bm
The minor blues shape — all three chords stay minor in the natural scale.
i–VII–VI
Em – D – C
The descending rock lament, one whole step at a time.
i–iv–VII–III
Em – Am – D – G
A circle-of-fifths descent — each root falls a fifth to the next.
How the key of E minor works
E Minor carries one sharp (F#). The scale runs E–F#–G–A–B–C–D, and stacking every other note of that scale builds the seven chords above — every chord tone comes from those same seven notes.
G Major is the relative major: identical key signature, identical seven chords. Treat G — the III chord here — as home base and you are in G major without changing a note.
The parallel major, E Major, keeps the same root but raises the third, sixth, and seventh — its signature shifts to four sharps (F#, C#, G# and D#). Moving a section from minor to parallel major is one of the oldest brightness tricks in songwriting.
Playing E minor on guitar
In E minor, Em, G, Am, C and D are open chords you can play in first position. Bm needs a barre shape or a capo. The diminished F#dim 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 (Em – C – G – D) with a capo:
Capo 5 · play it as B minor
Bm – G – D – A
3 of 4 shapes are open chords.
Capo 7 · play it as A minor
Am – F – C – G
3 of 4 shapes are open chords.
Capo 10 · play it as F# minor
F#m – D – A – E
3 of 4 shapes are open chords.
Where E minor sits on the neck
The root, E, is the open low E string and fret 7 on the A string, the two places most minor barre shapes and scale positions in E minor are built from.
All six open strings are notes of E minor, so any of them can ring against a fretted line without clashing.
The open low E (the root), B (the fifth) and high E (the root) strings make a drone you can let ring under riffs and melodies in this key.
One note separates E minor from each neighbour on the circle of fifths. Raise C to C# and you are in B minor; lower F# to F and you are in A minor. Those are the two keys a song in E minor most often modulates to.
Songs in E minor
From the song library, these recordings sound in E minor:
- Grace, Jeff Buckley
- Horse with No Name, America
Keep practicing
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