Minor Harmony and Chord Progressions (Explained)

Minor harmony is difficult to understand compared to major key harmony because there are 3 minor scales to deal with: natural, harmonic, and melodic minor.

So how do you know which chords harmonized from those scales to use? What are the common chord choices in minor harmony? That's exactly what I unpack in this video.

💥Important Links and Resources💥

[alexanderlochardful]

This type of harmonization is very common in Latin music especially in Salsa (Puerto Rico, Cuba, etc.) and in Latin Jazz (U.S.A. and Puerto Rico & Cuba). It's a whole different universe. Great information, thank you...

[paulocembranelli]

Congrats, , , simple, effective, straight to the point...

[rodolfoamaralguitar]

Some authors argue that the Im7 is not a very satisfying I chord because it is kind of inestable. The real minor is Im or Im6. What do you think? (Jimmy Amadie and Barry Harris talked about it)

[dkwvt]

Great breakdown here. I have never seen this material presented quite this way and the 4th "resolution "scale is awesome, makes total practical sense. Thank You...!

[gerrycappuccio]

Great analysis of the 3minor forms ! Bravo!

[brianmorris]

Very clear and too the point...thanks for the video

[NelsonRiverosMusic]

Thanks. Where is the link for your professor? I also went to City College.

[NikolaiMusicChannel]

Great video! :-) Clearly explained, and i like that you made a kind of common denominator "scale"/chord sequence to illustrate how to harmonize every step of the minor key. 
The only thing i don't fully agree on is the VI chord. I often prefer The VImaj7 over the VIm7(b5). I think it's a beautiful chord, for example in My favourite things and The saga of Harrison crabfeathers, and i also like it because of the great leading sound of VImaj7 - VII7 - Im7 :-) But that is mostly juste taste ;-)
It's funny, i was just putting together a very similar instructional cheat sheet for the three minor scales and their chord functions just now for some of my students, i just took a break when your video popped up on my feed! The only difference is that i went with a common denominator chord/scale with (Im7 - IIm7b5 - IIImaj7 - IVm7 - V7 - VImaj7 - VII7) instead:-)

[teamyordle]

Making a chord progression in natural minor just doesn't feel right. I need that strong V to I chord. Anyways, thanks for making this video. This was exactly what I was looking for when I wanted to understand why the natural minor scale didn't sound as strong as the major scale. I also learned more about the harmonic and melodic scale. Many thanks

[mrjazzman]

Wait a minute, what do you mean, the v7 (minorV) chord is NEVER used? How about "Black Magic Woman", for example? I'm sure there are many other tunes that work perfectly well harmonically speaking which are in a minor key and use the Vminor instead of the Vdom7minor... this kind of comment can be very misleading, if not downright wrong! What say you?

[jordanmadaley]

Isn't the 7 chord on melodic and harmonic minor both minor 7 flat 5 chords? It says b diminished 7 for harmonic and b minor 7 flat 5 for melodic but the chords I see on here are the exact same?

[michaeldematteis]

Been studying the melodic minor.confused about the 7 chord.i thought it was a dim triad.then I’ve seen it as a aug triad, you can make both chords.any help would be appreciated

[markE]

It really doesn't need to be difficult, 3 separate flow charts is all that's required

[petefeltman]

What about Dorian and Phrygian harmonization?

[Medivh]

Your final chart comes only from Natural and Melodic Minor scales. No chord that is unique to Harmonic minor there.

[rillloudmother]

FORTUNATELY there are 3 minor scales, I insist...

[The-nnkr]

I’m a little confused....

In Harmonic minor I swear that the chord naming convention goes:

min dim aug min maj maj dim

[mrjazzman]

sorry but this is geeky dogmatic BS. If you understand how music works, you know there are all sorts of harmonic progressions that sound great but don't necessarily conform to exam-type rules...

[michaelgonzales]

Your explanation is very difficult to follow, ....