Now, all you have to know is what scale degree you’re playing and you can tell whether or not you should be playing a major, minor, or diminished chord to stay in key. Watch the video below to learn how to identify the chords in a minor key using the Circle of Fourths: Using C minor as an example, the sequence of Roman numerals for minor keys is: For example, if we lowered the third of our C major chord so that it now looked like C-E♭-G, we have just created a C minor chord. You will need to be aware of the distance between each note in the triad in order to know its quality. It is the difference between the quality of the third that makes a chord major or minor. Some of the chords contain a minor third, and some contain a major third. In a major key, all of the chords except for the one built on the 7th scale degree will contain a perfect fifth. Just like each key has seven notes, each key also has seven chords, one for each note. Using C major as an example, the sequence of Roman numerals for major keys is:
If the numeral is upper case it means the chord is major, if it s lower case it means the chord is minor, and a lower case numeral with a degree symbol (°) means the chord is diminished. The roman numeral directly correlates to the scale degree of the key. Roman numerals are a shorthand way to understand what chords have what quality. We can apply this pattern for each note on the scale and figure out each chord.Ī simpler way to understand this is by using Roman Numerals. When we move up in thirds form D ( D-E- F –G- A ) we can see the second chord in C major is D-F-A. Now you know the first chord of C major: C-E-G The second chord of C major starts on the next note in the scale, D. If C is the 1st scale degree, that means the 3rd is E, and the 5th is G ( C-D- E-F- G). Let’s use the key of C major as an example because it uses all natural notes. Remember, a triad is a basic 3-note chord. Now that you can figure out what notes are in a given key you can start building triads in key.