Subject: Power Chords in Minor Keys?
You are getting this e-mail because you subscribed to it on www.learn-to-play-rock-guitar.com. If you don't want to receive these e-mails any longer, go to the bottom of this message and click on "unsubscribe." Hey there Friend, As I dug through the "mail bag" for ideas to chat with you about, I came across one near and dear to my heart.I spend a lot of my guitar time trying out different chord fingerings. I like to see if I can come up with a cool progression, riff or arpeggio based on a random chord I started off with. I received a question from Nasia in Australia about what the power chords would be in the keys of B minor and E minor. Interesting, I had never really given much thought to power chords when used in minor keys. As I thought about it, I realized that the power chords themselves aren't an issue. You see, a power chord is simply the tonic (1 note) and perfect fifth (5 note) of the scale the chord is made from. It doesn't matter what key we're playing in - major or minor - the power chord shape (my eBook "Easy Power Chords" covers the different shapes) will be the same. What we do need to know is what chords belong to the key of the song. This can get tricky, because songwriters have been known to change keys on us, sometimes multiple times. If I'm trying to learn a song, I tend to try and rely on my ears to tell me the type of chords being played. I'll first figure out the general pitch of each chord. For example, even though a chord is made up of multiple notes, it has one note that dominates the sonic frequencies, and this note is typically the tonic (the 1 note). A Bm (B minor) chord is three notes - B, D and F#. All three notes get played, but it's the B note that colors the chord the most, followed by the D note (which is the flattened third note from the key of B). Think of the fifth note (the F#) as kind of a supportive role for the B note - you don't really hear it as much as the other two notes. [NOTE - if you're really interested in how notes work together to complement each other and make nice sounding chords, "How Music Really Works," by Wayne Chase explains it fabulously. You can read the first six chapters of the book online (Chapter 3 covers our topic here) for free!] Getting back to the general pitch of the notes, once I have the basic notes for the chord progression, I can usually tell what the chords should be based on their sound. But if we're focused on power chords, we already have the information we need. Regardless of whether the song is in a major or minor key, the power chords we use will work just fine. As I said before, we just need to know what chords fit for the key of the song. Let's compare a chord progression in B major to a progression in B minor. The chords in B major are B, C#m, D#m, E, F#, G#m, A#dim and then we start over with B. Each of these chords could easily be switched with their power chords. So you'd have B5, C#5, D#5, E5, F#5, G#5, A#5 and back to B5. OK, now the chords in B minor: Bm, C#dim, D, Em, F#m, G, A If we change those to power chords, we have B5, C#5, D5, E5, F#5, G5, A5 and back to B5. It's all about remembering the chord patterns for major versus minor keys. The only chord shape you need is the power chord shape (the one and five notes from the scale the chord is named after - learn more about power chords in my eBook "Easy Power Chords"). We use Roman Numerals to denote what type of chord should be used. Capital numerals are Major chords, lower-case numerals are minor chords and "degree" symbols denote diminished chords. The major keys call for this chord progression pattern: I ii iii IV V vi vii° Major chords are the I, IV and the V chords. The minor keys call for this chord progression pattern: i ii° III iv v VI VII Minor chords are the i, iv and the v chords. That's probably more than enough information (maybe too much) to get you going. Obviously knowing your fingerboard is going to be extremely helpful as you figure out which chords you should use. This is definitely worth revisiting soon, and since I really like talking about chord theory, we can go a little deeper next time. Hope this helps, and don't hesitate to email me any questions. Have a great weekend, and Rock ON! Peace~ Dave Dave "Eddie" Vance is a rock guitar enthusiast and gear nut. He has been playing guitar for over 30 years and enjoys tormenting the neighbors every chance he gets. When he's not slaving for the man, you can find him rocking out with his B.C. Rich Bich guitar, a cold beer and some sweet tunes. He also runs Learn-To-Play-Rock-Guitar.com, but you knew that already! Follow Learn To Play Rock Guitar:I welcome your feedback! 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