Minor Key Chord Progression Chart

Explore common chord progressions in minor keys with this widget. It’s an interactive widget that you can control by moving your mouse around or by pressing buttons with your computer keyboard. In addition to hearing how these chords relates harmonically to each other in the selected key, you can view them on screen. It is a sort of audio-visual chart.

To get started press one of the buttons along the top row; these correspond to each minor key (Em, Am etc.). When you press a key, all the progression lists updates to show the chords for that tonality. This lets you use real chord names (C minor, F major etc.) to map out what those abstract Roman numerals mean.

How to Use the Minor Chords Widget

Just below that are lists of progressions. These will load when you select one from the list. What follows is the progression shown as a series of cards. Each card includes name of the chord, its harmonic function, and Roman numeral analysis. This helps you know if it’s a tonic home base, a subdominant departure, or a dominant tension point.

To play through the chords and see how it progress, simply hit the Play button below. It will step through each chord in time, lighting up the active card as it goes so you can follow along visually. Hit the button again to stop playing. Alternatively, tapping on any of the individual chord cards will play only that harmony by itself, making it easy to isolate different sounds or practice transitioning between them.

Use the output level slider for the Master Output level. This keeps the sound at a comfortabley listening volume no matter how high or low your device is set. Finally, there’s a Fullscreen button in the interface. When clicked, it expands the widget to fill the screen. This lets you read descriptions on the chord cards with fewer distractions.

If you want more info, just click on How to play button at the top of the chart. This will open a help panel that describes how to read Roman numeral notation and harmonic functions. It explains why certain Roman numerals is uppercase (major chords), lowercase (minor and diminished), or include a degree symbol. This can be very useful if you’re not used to reading a chord chart.

For ease of use/accessibility, all elements of the widget can be controlled via the keyboard. Hit the Tab key to jump from one control/key/button to another. When focus lands on a control, hit Space/Enter to trigger the action. With this you can play chords, choose progressions, swap keys etc. You don’t need a trackpad or mouse.

Use these as a starting point. Mix them up and listen to your chosen theory played out through the audio tool. Compare the harmonic minor against the natural minor cadence to hear where the dominant chord sound. Then try listening for the rising and falling tones of an Andalusian cadence that pull at you. Or listen for the loop’s pop-rock feel that circles around.

All this variation shows how even slight changes to the way chords sounds can change how any music feels. Explore each of the options through the various keys and try it out in other progressions. They all have their own colour, direction and inspiration for you to use as a starting point for your practice routine or even composing some music.

Listen to how they sound over the twelve minor keys then get going with them. You should of used these before!