G minor: scale and chords

The G minor chord (Gm) on guitar and piano

G B♭ D

The G minor chord is G, B♭ and D: the keynote, a minor third above it (three semitones) and the fifth (four more). It's the chord a song in G minor comes home to, the i in the table below. Gm, Gmin and G− all name it.

Guitar: 3 5 5 3 3 3 (low E to high E, x = not played). A barre: the index finger flat across the 3rd fret, ring and little finger on the 5th fret of the A and D strings. It's the open Em shape moved up 3 frets.

Without a barre: x x 0 3 3 3, the open D string under B♭, D and G at the 3rd fret, or x x 5 3 3 3 on the top four strings. Higher up, the open Am shape at the 10th fret: x 10 12 12 11 10. With a capo on the 3rd fret, the open Em, Am, C and D shapes sound as Gm, Cm, E♭ and F.

Ukulele: 0 2 3 1 (G C E A), the open G string as the root.

Piano: G (white), B♭ (black) and D (white). Right hand fingers 1 3 5, left hand 5 3 1. First inversion B♭ D G, second inversion D G B♭. Against G major (G B D) only the middle note moves, a semitone down.

Play Gm

G blues scale · G minor pentatonic scale · G harmonic minor scale · G minor scale on piano

The G minor scale

G A B♭ C D E♭ F

Key signature: two flats, B♭ then E♭, the same as B♭ major. On the treble staff B♭ sits on the middle line and E♭ in the top space; on the bass clef, on the second line (B♭) and in the third space (E♭). On a piano two of the seven notes are black keys (B♭ E♭). Whole and half steps: W H W W H W W.

Harmonic minor raises the seventh to F♯: G A B♭ C D E♭ F♯. The chord on the fifth turns major (D, D7) and pulls back to G. Melodic minor raises the sixth and seventh going up, G A B♭ C D E F♯, and comes down as natural minor: G F E♭ D C B♭ A G.

Play harmonic minor Play melodic minor

In Hz, from the keynote in octave 4: G4 392.0 · A4 440.0 · B♭4 466.2 · C5 523.3 · D5 587.3 · E♭5 622.3 · F5 698.5

Play the scale

The chords in G minor

Tap a chord to hear it.

On guitar: Gm 3 5 5 3 3 3 · A° x 0 1 2 1 x · B♭ x 1 3 3 3 1 · Cm x 3 5 5 4 3 · Dm x x 0 2 3 1 · E♭ x 6 8 8 8 6 · F 1 3 3 2 1 1.

The V in G minor. Natural minor gives Dm on the fifth degree. Most music in G minor uses F♯ from harmonic minor instead, which makes it D major (D F♯ A, x x 0 2 3 2) or D7 (D F♯ A C, x x 0 2 1 2): F♯ sits a semitone under G and pulls home much harder than F does.

The loop plays i–VI–III–VII: Gm E♭ B♭ F.

G minor's relative major (B♭ major), and G major's relative minor

B♭ major has exactly the same seven notes and the same two flats: it's the relative major, starting on G minor's third note, three semitones up. What differs is the home note. G major is G minor's parallel major, the same keynote with one sharp; some scale pages call B♭ major the parallel key, which is a mix-up. And G major's own relative minor is E minor, not G minor. Not to be confused either with G♯ minor, a semitone higher, with five sharps.

G minor or G major: what changes

G major has one sharp and the notes G A B C D E F♯. G minor lowers three of them: B to B♭, E to E♭ and F♯ to F. The one you hear first is the third: B♭ against B is the only note that differs between the chords Gm and G. In practice G minor music still uses F♯ all the time, borrowed from harmonic minor, for the D chord that leads home.

Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G minor, and other music in the key

Mozart's Symphony No. 40, K. 550, is the piece most people mean when they search the key with a composer's name. He entered it in his catalogue on 25 July 1788 in Vienna, between Nos. 39 and 41, and later added clarinets to it. It is one of only two symphonies he wrote in a minor key; the other, No. 25, K. 183 (1773), is also in G minor. The first movement opens on a quiet accompaniment in the violas before the violins come in with the theme.

Bach wrote the "Great" Fantasia and Fugue BWV 542 and the "Little" Fugue BWV 578 in G minor, and in November 2025 the Bach-Archiv in Leipzig added two organ chaconnes to his catalogue, one of them in G minor (BWV 1179). Also in G minor: "Summer" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1, Chopin's Ballade No. 1 (the piece Szpilman plays for the German officer in Roman Polanski's 2002 film The Pianist), Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 23 No. 5, and the Adagio credited to Albinoni that Remo Giazotto published in 1958. In pop: Billie Eilish's "bad guy" (2019).

What plays

Drums, an organ bass and a pluck, the Brumm app's own sounds, four bars at 123 BPM, one chord per bar. The arrows move bass and chords a semitone; the drums stay.

Progressions in G minor

• i–VI–III–VII Gm E♭ B♭ F: the loop above, all from natural minor.
• i–iv–V Gm Cm D: the minor-key cadence, with the major V.
• i–VII–VI–V Gm F E♭ D: four chords stepping down to D, known as the Andalusian cadence.
• ii°–V7–i Am7♭5 D7 Gm: the minor ii–V–i of jazz.

The G minor scale on piano and guitar

Piano: right hand 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5, the thumb passing under to C; left hand 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1, the third finger crossing over to E♭. The same fingers as G major, and they stay the same for harmonic and melodic minor.

Guitar, natural minor in two octaves from G on the 3rd fret of the low E string:

For harmonic minor, play every F a fret higher, as F♯.

Why G minor is a string key

Christian Schubart, writing in the 1780s, heard in it "discontent, uneasiness, worry about a failed scheme ... resentment and dislike". That was in an age of unequal tunings; in equal temperament every minor key has the same intervals, and what G minor has of its own is the open strings. G is the lowest open string of the violin, and G and D, the keynote and its fifth, are open strings on violin, viola and cello alike, so the key rings on all of them (the table below counts which strings). On guitar, the open D and G strings are the fifth and the keynote of Gm. Bach's first sonata for solo violin, BWV 1001, is in G minor too.

Is there a forbidden key?

No key is forbidden. The phrase people half remember is about an interval: the tritone, six semitones. Medieval singers were taught to avoid it ("mi contra fa"), and the nickname "diabolus in musica" is first recorded in the 18th century (Andreas Werckmeister, 1702; Johann Joseph Fux, Gradus ad Parnassum, 1725). There's no record of a church ban. In G minor it sits between A and E♭, inside the A° chord, and it's the tension in D7 (F♯ against C) that resolves to Gm.

Keys that mix with G minor

On the Camelot wheel G minor is 6A (Open Key 11m). Tracks in these keys mix without a clash:

• 6B B♭ major relative major, the same seven notes
• 5A C minor one step down
• 7A D minor one step up
• 8A A minor two steps up, the energy boost

Same keynote, the other mode: G major (9B), three notes apart.

Where G minor sits

Choir parts (soprano C4–G5, alto G3–D5, tenor C3–G4, bass F2–D4, where two part-writing guides agree): G4–G5 fits the soprano part; G3–G4 fits the alto and tenor parts; G2–G3 fits the bass part. Find your own range.

As a sub or an 808, the keynote is G1 at 49.0 Hz, or G2 at 98.0 Hz an octave up. Tune an 808 to G.

Then hum over it

The hum button opens Brumm with a short line in the key over a beat. Hum yours and it becomes an instrument. No account, no upload.

Sources

Scales and chords: Open Music Theory, musictheory.net. Camelot, Open Key: Mixed In Key, Mixgraph. Open strings: Wikipedia. Choir parts: Open Music Theory, Geneseo. Guitar shapes: Wikipedia, Barre chord. Hz: A4 = 440 Hz, ISO 16.

Nothing leaves your phone but the sound files it fetches: no microphone here, and the page keeps nothing. How the site counts visits.