Music-Theory

When it comes to music theory, there is a myth that some people like to subscribe to, which goes along the following lines: Learning music theory will make me less creative as a guitarist and composer.

In this article, we’re going to look at why this is a myth and why learning music theory will help you become more creative guitar players, not less.

What is the purpose of music theory?

Let’s start with a brief look at what music theory is.

Different people learn to play guitar for different reasons. 

Some people want to learn their favourite songs, some people want to play in bands and play guitar solos…

and some people want to be able to compose, record and perform their own songs. 

This article is going to look at the different topics that you need to study in order to be able to compose neoclassical instrumental guitar songs. 

So, if you’re into players like Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony McAlpine and Joe Satriani; and you want to write your own instrumental guitar songs, read on! 

Minor key chord progressions are any chord progressions that come from the minor scale.

In this article, we’ll look at some common minor chord progressions and also look at a lot of examples on how to play these chord progressions on guitar in the keys of A minor, C minor, D minor and E minor (these keys are quite common!).

Let’s quickly recap the chords in the natural minor key:

Scale Degree	1	2	b3	4	5	b6	b7
Chord	i	ii˚	bIII	iv	v	bVI	bVII

Common Minor Chord Progressions

Here are some chord progression, all in minor key, that are commonly seen in music:

When we talk about chords in minor scales, we are usually thinking about chords from the natural minor scale (sometimes called the Aeolian mode).

If we harmonise the natural minor scale, we get the following chords: i (minor), ii˚ (diminished), bIII (major), iv (minor), v (minor), bVI (major) and bVII (major):

In this article, we’ll look at how to harmonise the minor scale to get these chords, different minor scale chord progressions and some examples in different minor keys on guitar.