Minor
C Major
i:Gminor
ii°:Adim
♭III:Bbmajor
iv:Cminor
v:Dminor
♭VI:Ebmajor
♭VII:Fmajor

Guitar chords in the key of G minor

DIATONIC
  • Tap a note to hear it
  • Play the chord
  • Arrows change position
SECONDARY DOMINANT
TRITONE SUBSTITUTION
BORROWED
What each chord in G minor does

The seven chords of G minor are Gm, Adim, Bb, Cm, Dm, Eb, F. Each one has a job in the key, and each tends towards particular chords next.

  • Gm, the tonic of G minor. Usually goes to Cm or Dm: i moves to iv, which introduces the key’s flat 6th. Begins and ends the phrase, as the tonic of any key does -- but a cadence onto it normally arrives from a chord the natural minor has not got, since V needs a raised third to have a leading tone. So the plain triad here is usually preceded by something borrowed.
  • Adim, the supertonic of G minor. Usually goes to Dm: roots falling a fifth: the minor key’s ii–V. The root and ♭5 form a tritone. Because those notes usually resolve by step into the next chord, this chord is most often used as a passing or predominant chord. The minor key's approach chord, and rarely played as a bare triad: in practice it turns up as the half-diminished seventh, or in first inversion so the ♭5 is not in the bass, and either way it is on its way to the dominant.
  • Bb, the mediant of G minor. Usually goes to Eb or F: a fourth up inside the relative major. Used to brighten without leaving the key: this is the relative major's tonic, so a minor progression that moves here has the major sound and none of the work of modulating.
  • Cm, the subdominant of G minor. Usually goes to Dm: subdominant into dominant, the cadence the minor key borrows from major. The departure of a minor key, and the chord most often stolen from it: dropped into a major key at the end of a phrase it is the minor plagal cadence, which is why a great many songs in a major key have one minor chord and it is this one.
  • Dm, the dominant of G minor. Usually goes to Gm: the leading tone rises into the minor tonic. This chord is usually not played as it stands: a minor key that wants a cadence raises its third, and the minor v is kept for the places where the phrase should move without closing -- a modal or folk setting, or a descent from the tonic where the leading tone would sound out of style.
  • Eb, the submediant of G minor. Usually goes to F or Cm: the Aeolian cadence: ♭VI–♭VII–i closes the key with no dominant at all. Used at the two moments a minor key needs to sound large: as the landing of a deceptive cadence, and as the first chord of ♭VI–♭VII–i, which closes the key without a dominant and so without a leading tone.
  • F, the subtonic of G minor. Usually goes to Gm or Bb: ♭VII rises a whole step to i, so there is no leading-tone resolution. Used to close a minor key without a leading tone (♭VI–♭VII–i), and as the way out of it: this is the dominant of the relative major, so a minor verse can pivot on it into a major chorus.

Midi Settings

7.5
Play Style
One pass of the pick from the lowest string up, everything left ringing.
Instrument
350
150

Style

Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.

Layout

Left Handed Mode