Minor Triads

Last we looked at Major Triads and Inversions. The next step would be to introduce the Minor triad. To play a minor triad from the major triad, all you have to do is flat the 3rd of your root chord like this:

C(1)-E(3)-G(5)  (C-Major triad)

C(1)-Eb(3b)-G(5) (C-Minor triad)

Remember that 1-3-5 is based on the number system as explained in another article

From this you can invert the root like this:

Eb-G-C

G-C-Eb

Look below to see in real time:

The most important thing to understand when it comes to playing in a minor key is that "for every minor key, you have a relative major key that you play". This means that if you can master the major key than you can automatically play the minor key.

In a major key, your 6th tone will always be the relative minor of that key. So in the above example, C-minor is the 6th tone for Eb-major, therefore your relative major key is Eb.

So when a song starts with C-Minor you can actually start playing in Eb Major, but the only difference is that you start the song on the 6th tone and not with the normal 1 chord (Eb-major). Here is an example of how it would sound within a song context: