Question.. hopefully it makes sense..

My guitar teacher told me to find the numbers of the chord progression of a song thats in Aminor. awhile back i learned the pattern Major, Minor, Minor, Major, Major, Minor, Diminished, Major. But i think that only works with major scales. Sorry this is really difficult to explain, but does anyone know the pattern for a Minor progression? I'm prepared to answer questions cause i probably just confused you... :P

your question does make sense, i used to know, but I have forgotten

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Maj, Min, Min, Maj, Maj, Min, Dim

Thats is for a Major progression.

In a minor Progression you start from the 6th degree of the Major scale:

6, 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Min, Dim, Maj, Min, Min, Maj, Maj

However, looking at it from a "minor" point of view (^^) you should remember that the Minor (n this case A minor) is the first degree of your minor scale. Looking at it from a Major point of view, it is the 6th degree.

So an A minor chord progresiion, is just the chords from the Cmajor scale started from the 6th degree. However, you shouldnt only stick to learn the numbers of the degress, also learn their real names, that will help you a lot in terms of theory.

As Minor (Aeolian) is also the 6th Mode of the Major scale!

+1 to Admiral.......
and to further clarify (I hope), at the top of the page click on "chord progressions" and then select "A" "natural minor triads". Seeing the information may help you to understand.
Nicely done Admiral.
Phip

Best advice I've got is to just play around starting from A Minor and then start to intersperse E Minor, C Major, D Minor, F Major, G Major. Diminished at your own risk! haha

I wrote a song in my old band that followed this progression(slow down picked chord, then slow up picked chords):

A Minor, C Major, G Major, E Minor

Using a Major chord or two with your progression can help give it a really sad contrast because you hear happy then sad rather than sad, sad, sad where that could sort of feel down the whole way and not give it enough 'emphasis' that it is a minor chord(due to the contrast between the major and minor chords).

whats the difference between a major progession and a minor, other than where you start?

YUP just look at it.
same thing when playing the scale starting on the "6", except, for simplicity when communicating with other musicians you call it Aeolian and the 6(of the major scale) becomes the 1(of the Aeolian scale)

cool huh?
Phip

Good job Admiral!! Just wondering since this is the Aeolian mode(natural minor progression) can you also have a Dorian, Phrygian and Locrian progressions just start from the ii-iii-vii positions???

thanks . just what i suspected.

and the 5 of a minor what would be e minor should be major. thats why the harmonic minor scale was invented. so a minor progression could be i, iv, V, i roman numerals.

Looking at it from the major key (C Major), popular progressions that start on an Am = Am, F, C, G (6, 4, 5, 1) or Am, G, F (6, 5, 4).

isnt there an Augmented chord in minor keys?

an augmented chord is in harmonic minor for example! I recently wrote a progression in harmonic minor, and I managed to not make the augmented chord sound out of place, haha.

The progression is
Cm Cm Ddim Bdim | Cm Cm G G# | F D#aug Cm Cm

I really like the progression for soloing Charmonic minor over it and jamming. And the augmented chord sounds quite nice I think!

And in A minor progression, if you turn the 5 into a major chord, you have a strong lead to your root chord. Metallica in Nothin else matters use it. The play a B7 before they go back to the Eminor. Loads of bands do it, many metal bands especially.

@Moshzilla
I am also looking at that topic at the moment. It is possible, however, the difference between the Aeolian mode and the Ionian mode is so big (as it was the biggest difference) that people decided to call them Major and Minor. The other Modes are more similar in their sound. So it is possible to make a Chord progression, its just a bit harder to make it "visible" that the chord progression is resolving or referring to their specific base. For example this chord progression is kind of dorian i think:

Dm | C | Dm | F | Dm | F | G | Dm

So the chords are from C major or A minor, however you look at it. But when i play it, and I get to the Gmajor, i don't feel like resolving to Cmajor nor A minor. But I think that the chord progresion should resolve on the Dminor (the 2 in Cmajor)

But as I said, I am also still learning on this topic! Correct me if I'm wrong!

Hope I could help!

19 responses... but if you just went to the "chord progessions" tool on this very website, you could have found it very easily...