Chords in major keys
Major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished — in every major key.
Chords in minor keys
Minor, diminished, major, minor, minor, major, major — the natural minor pattern. Most songs also borrow a major V (E in A minor); each key page shows it.
How to read the chart
Each row is one key. Its seven chords are built on the seven notes of the key's scale, so they all fit together — that is why a song in G major keeps using G, C, D and Em, and rarely F.
The Roman numerals across the top number the chords by scale degree: uppercase for major, lowercase for minor, ° for diminished. They let you move a progression to any key — read I – V – vi – IV along any major row and you have the same progression in that key. The Chord Transposer does that for a whole song.
A major key and its relative minor share a row's worth of chords: C major and A minor use the same seven, and so do G major and E minor. Not sure which key your song is in? Paste its chords into the Key Finder, or see how every key connects on the Circle of Fifths.
Frequently Asked Questions
Every major key has seven chords in the same pattern: major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished (I ii iii IV V vi vii°). In C major that is C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and Bdim. Every natural minor key follows minor, diminished, major, minor, minor, major, major (i ii° III iv v VI VII) — in A minor, Am, Bdim, C, Dm, Em, F and G.
Build a triad on each note of the key's scale using only notes from that scale: take a note, skip one, take the next, skip one, take the next. Because the scale is uneven, some of those triads come out major, some minor and one diminished — which is where the pattern comes from.
They number the chords by the scale degree they are built on. Uppercase is a major chord (I, IV, V), lowercase a minor chord (ii, iii, vi), and a small circle marks the diminished chord (vii°). Numerals describe a progression in every key at once: I – V – vi – IV is C – G – Am – F in C and G – D – Em – C in G.
Yes. C major and A minor share all seven chords and the same key signature — C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am and Bdim. The difference is which chord sounds like home: the song resolves to C in C major and to Am in A minor.
The natural minor scale makes the v chord minor, which only weakly leads back to the tonic. Raising the scale's 7th note (the harmonic minor scale) turns it major — E instead of Em in A minor — and that raised note sits a half step below the tonic and pulls to it. Most minor-key songs use the major V at cadences, so every minor key page lists it alongside the seven chords.
The keys with the most open chords, which makes them the best guitar keys for beginners: C major (5 open chords), G major (5 open chords), E minor (5 open chords), A minor (5 open chords), D major (4 open chords) and B minor (4 open chords). Keys like E flat, A flat and B flat have few or no open chords in standard tuning.
Use a capo. None of the chords in E flat major are open chords, but with a capo on fret 3 you can play C major shapes and they sound in E flat. Every key page lists the best capo positions for that key.
Looking for something else? Search the full Chord Library — hundreds of diagrams across every chord type, including diminished 7th, augmented 7th, 6/9, slash, and extended chords.