An Easy Way to Understand Harmony | Part II: Minor Harmony

We can use what we learned about major harmony in Part I to more easily understand minor harmony. There are some occasions where it makes sense to view minor harmony as its own thing. However, if it is possible to stay relative to major harmony, these beginning concepts will be easier to digest. Unlike major harmony, there are a few different types of minor harmony (natural minor, harmonic minor, melodic minor). First, let’s understand how minor is related to major:

1.         Relative Minor Keys

Within every major key, lives a minor key – meaning, if we rearrange the same exact group of notes in a major key, we can form its relative minor key (natural minor). The sixth note in a major key reveals its relative minor.

Remember our notes and diatonic chords of C major?

C major: C | D | E | F | G |A | B

    I - ii - iii - IV - V - vi - vii°

If we rearrange the notes, starting on the sixth note instead, we’ll get the key of A minor. 

If we rearrange our chord-scale to start on the sixth-chord (our relative minor) we get:

vi - vii° - I - ii - iii - IV - V

Now, let’s keep the chord qualities but number the chords to get a minor key chord-scale:

A minor: A | B | C | D | E | F | G 

        i - ii° - III - iv - v - VI - VII

It’s important to understand this new minor key chord-scale formula, especially when it comes to using ‘borrowed chords’ in progressions, which we’ll look at more closely in part three.

However, unless we’re diving into jazz or classical genres, we can most likely think about and analyze minor-key songs using the major-key diatonic formula.

2.         Parallel Minor

Parallel Minor is when the tonic (root of the scale) is the same in both its major and minor versions.  For example: C major and C minor.  These two keys do not share the same diatonic chords.

C major:  C – Dm – Em – F – G – Am – Bdim

C minor:  Cm – Ddim – Eb – Fm – G m – Ab – Bb  

You can, however, use the rules of relative minors to figure out the diatonic structure of C minor. Again, if a minor key is related to the sixth note of a major key, we just have to figure out which major key contains C as its sixth note. And the answer is… Eb major. In other words, all the notes/chords in Eb major are the same as its relative minor, C minor.

3.         Using the Minor iv Chord

One of the most popular ways to utilize Parallel Minor is by borrowing the iv chord to insert in a major tonality. Chances are many of the artists you listen to have used this technique, which creates a beautiful yet haunting lift. It is often preceded by the diatonic IV chord and resolved back to the tonic, I chord – though it doesn’t have to follow that pattern. Using the key of C major and its Parallel Minor, C minor, here’s an example:

| C | F | Fm | C |

While we are technically in C major, we can borrow chords – in this example the iv chord - from the Parallel Minor.

Try to identify when this type of borrowing is used in songs you’re listening to and learning! And of course, you can now incorporate this technique into your own writing.