Key of E Minor

The key of E Minor has one sharp (F♯). Its notes are E F♯ G A B C D, and the seven chords built on those notes are Em, F♯dim, G, Am, Bm, C, D.

That short list is most of what you need. Learn the scale, learn those seven chords, and you can read anything, accompany anyone or improvise in E Minor without stopping to work out what fits. The relative major, G Major, uses the same key signature and the same seven notes, so learning one gets you both.

Below: the signature, the seven degrees with their names, the seven triads and the seven sevenths with roman numerals, four progressions spelled in E Minor, the keys next door, and a week's practice order. Em, Am and Bm each have a keyboard on this page that grades what you press.

E Minor is written with one sharp (F♯), printed in that order at the start of every line. From then on every F on the page is sharp, in every octave, until a natural sign says otherwise.

Sharps are always added in the order F♯ C♯ G♯ D♯ A♯ E♯ B♯, so a signature with one of them is the first one of that list, every time.

The accidental you will meet most in E Minor is a raised D: D♯ instead of D. That is the harmonic minor's leading tone, a half step under E, and it turns the v chord into a major V that pulls home. Mark it in pencil the first time; after that you will expect it.

Each note of the E Minor scale has a job and a name. Teachers use the names; knowing them lets you talk about any key with the same seven words.

Home is E. The note that wants to get back there most is B, which is why a v chord sits at the end of so many phrases. A pulls too, but gently.

Play the scale slowly and count out loud. A week of feeling silly, and you will hear degrees instead of letters. That is the whole trick.

There are seven chords in E Minor, one on each note of the scale. These are the diatonic chords: every one of them uses only notes from the key, which is why they sound like they belong together.

Capitals are major. Lowercase is minor. The small circle on VII means diminished, and there is exactly one of those in every key. Skip it for now; nobody misses it in the first year.

Start with Em and Bm. Add Am, then C. Most songs you already know are those four chords in some order.

Em: E, G, B. The i chord of E Minor.

This is home. Every phrase in the key is measured against it, and most of them end on it.

Play it on the keyboard above: right hand thumb on the root, then fingers 3 and 5 on the other two notes. Left hand is the mirror, finger 5 on the root, then 3 and 1. Press the three keys and the page will tell you whether you found them.

Am: A, C, E. The iv chord of E Minor.

The subdominant lifts away from home without much tension. It is the chord that makes a progression feel like it is going somewhere pleasant.

Play it on the keyboard above: right hand thumb on the root, then fingers 3 and 5 on the other two notes. Left hand is the mirror, finger 5 on the root, then 3 and 1. Press the three keys and the page will tell you whether you found them.

Bm: B, D, F♯. The v chord of E Minor.

The dominant is the tension chord. It pulls back to the tonic hard enough that your ear finishes the phrase before your hands do.

Play it on the keyboard above: right hand thumb on the root, then fingers 3 and 5 on the other two notes. Left hand is the mirror, finger 5 on the root, then 3 and 1. Press the three keys and the page will tell you whether you found them.

Add one more note, a third above the top of each triad, and the seven chords of E Minor become seventh chords. This is the sound of jazz and soul, and of most film music, and it is one finger away from what you already know.

The one to learn first is Bm7, the dominant seventh. It is the strongest pull back to the tonic in tonal music, and once your ear knows it you will hear it coming at the end of almost every phrase.

You do not have to play all four notes. Dropping the fifth keeps the character and frees a finger, which is exactly what pianists do when the left hand is busy.

Chords in E Minor are worth far more in sequence than alone. These four progressions use nothing outside the key, and between them they cover most of what you will meet.

Play each one four times through, left hand roots and right hand triads, before you change anything. Then try the same progression with the right hand starting from an inversion, so your hand stops jumping around the keyboard, that one change is what makes chord playing sound like music instead of exercises.

G Major is the relative major of E Minor. Same key signature, same seven notes, different home note, so it is the same white-and-black-key geography with the gravity moved. If you can play one scale you can already play the other.

E Major is the parallel key: same starting note, different signature. That is the one beginners mix up. Relative keys share notes; parallel keys share a home. Composers switch between parallel keys when they want the mood to change without the music going anywhere.

Next door on the circle of fifths sit A Minor and B Minor. Those keys differ from this one by a single accidental, which is why a piece can slip into one of them mid-phrase and back again without anything sounding forced.

A week in E Minor, fifteen minutes a day, in this order:

1. The scale, hands separately. Slowly enough that you never have to correct a note. Speed is the reward for accuracy, not the route to it.
2. The tonic triad, Em, in all three positions. Root position, then first inversion, then second. Say which one you are playing.
3. i–v–i. Em to Bm and back, until your hand finds it without looking.
4. Add Am and C and play the four-chord progression above.
5. Play something real in the key. A hymn, a pop song, a study, anything where the chords are doing a job rather than being practiced.

If a step is not comfortable, stay on it. Nobody has ever regretted spending an extra day on step 2, and everybody who skipped it has gone back to it later.