Lesson 15: Minor Triads

This lesson teaches minor triads. The minor triad is the 2nd-most basic chord type, after the major triad.

Before you take this lesson, you should know: the major triads. You can test yourself with Lesson 14: Major Triad Games.

The rule for the minor triad is pretty simple: The minor triad consists of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a major scale (like the major triad), except you lower the 3rd a half-step. Symbolically, we write it like this:

Minor triad: 1 ♭3 5

The chord symbol for the minor triad is m ("little em"). Here are a couple of examples:

Symbol	Name & nicknames
Bm	B minor triad, B minor chord, B minor
C♯m	C-sharp minor triad, C-sharp minor chord, C-sharp minor

Here are two example pairs of major & minor triads, so you can see how the major and minor triads are related to each other:

D ("D major chord"):	D F♯ A
Dm ("D minor chord"):	D F A

E♭ ("E-flat major chord"):	E♭ G B♭
E♭m ("E-flat minor chord"):	E♭ G♭ B♭

For reference, these are the notes in the common minor triads:

Chord Symbol	Root	3rd	5th
Am	A	C	E
B♭m	B♭	D♭	F
Bm	B	D	F♯
Cm	C	E♭	G
C♯m	C♯	E	G♯
Dm	D	F	A
D♯m	D♯	F♯	A♯
E♭m	E♭	G♭	B♭
Em	E	G	B
Fm	F	A♭	C
F♯m	F♯	A	C♯
Gm	G	B♭	D
G♯m	G♯	B	D♯