Minor

Notes and formula

The formula is 1 – ♭3 – 5, or 0 – 3 – 7 in semitones from the root. Stack a minor third (three semitones) and then a major third (four): C to E♭, E♭ to G. The order of the two thirds is the whole difference from a major chord, which stacks them the other way round.

The outer interval stays a perfect fifth in both chords, and that is why a minor triad is as stable as a major one. Nothing inside it needs to resolve: it can open a piece, end it, or hold for eight bars without asking for anything.

How to play it

On piano the chord is C–E♭–G under one hand, and the black key in the middle makes it easy to find — play a C major triad and slide the middle finger back one key.

On guitar C minor has no open shape in standard tuning: every note of the chord would have to be fretted. The usual forms are the barre x35543 with the root on the fifth string and 8-10-10-8-8-8 with the root on the sixth. A three-note version sits on the middle strings at x-x-1-0-1-x, and inside a fast progression that is what most players actually reach for.

The minor chords that do fall under the open position — Am at x02210, Em at 022000, Dm at xx0231 — are among the first shapes any guitarist learns, which is why guitar-written songs so often sit in keys where those three work.

How it sounds and why

Calling the chord sad is a cultural habit rather than an acoustic fact, but there is a measurable difference behind the habit. A major triad lines up closely with the harmonic ratios 4:5:6; a minor triad answers to 10:12:15 — larger numbers, a looser fit with the overtone series, and a sound the ear reads as darker rather than unstable.

The practical consequence is that all the character lives in the third. Leave that note to one instrument and the chord turns ambiguous; double it an octave apart and the colour becomes unmistakable.

Where it sits in a key

Three of the seven triads in a major key are minor: the second, third and sixth degrees. In C major those are Dm, Em and Am, and the sixth degree does most of the work in popular music — the vi–IV–I–V loop, Am–F–C–G in C, starts minor and resolves major, which is why it can carry both a lament and a chorus.

In a natural minor key the minor triads are the first, fourth and fifth degrees: Cm, Fm and Gm in C minor. Common practice raises the seventh degree so the fifth chord turns major, which is why a G major chord appears constantly in music written in C minor — the raised B natural is what makes the return to Cm sound like an arrival.

Minor or major

The two chords differ by one note. C major is C–E–G, C minor is C–E♭–G. Lower the third by a semitone and the chord changes its name, its colour and its role in the key while keeping the root and fifth it started with.

This matters when reading chord charts, because the notation is asymmetric: a bare letter always means major, and minor is always marked with m, min or a dash. It is the one part of chord symbols that no dialect disagrees about.

Scales that contain it

Three modes fit a minor triad without altering a note: Aeolian, which is the natural minor scale, Dorian, which raises the sixth degree, and Phrygian, which lowers the second. Choosing between them is a question of which colour note you want above the chord, not which one is correct.

The minor pentatonic scale contains the chord too, and it leaves out exactly the two degrees those three modes disagree about — which is why it sounds safe over any of them, and why it is the first scale most improvisers are given.

Frequently asked questions