D minor chord
The minor chord one step above home.
- How it sounds
- Soft and unresolved more than dark. The minor third over the open D gives it a hollow ring, and strummed open it sounds older than it is. A bit modal, almost medieval.
- Where it lives
- The ii of C major and the iv of A minor. In C it’s the chord that sets up G. Folk, singer-songwriters, film underscore, and the Dm–G–C cadence at the end of countless songs.
Voicings across the neck
D, F and A are shown in three places on the neck. Minor has three movable shapes in common use, the open Em, Am and Dm grips, and here each one is moved so its root lands on D. The open Dm uses only the top four strings, with the open D string as its root. The Am form at the 5th fret is a barre across five strings, and the Em form at the 10th is the full six.
- High E string: F at fret 1
- B string: D at fret 3
- G string: A at fret 2
- D string: D at fret 0
- A string: not played
- Low E string: not played
- High E string: A at fret 5
- B string: F at fret 6
- G string: D at fret 7
- D string: A at fret 7
- A string: D at fret 5
- Low E string: not played
- High E string: D at fret 10
- B string: A at fret 10
- G string: F at fret 10
- D string: D at fret 12
- A string: A at fret 12
- Low E string: D at fret 10
Formula
| Intervals | Notes | Semitones |
|---|---|---|
| R · m3 · P5: what each interval does in a chord | D · F · A | 3 + 4 |
D minor is a root, a minor third and a perfect fifth: D, F and A. Start on the second note of the C major scale and skip every other one, and these are the three you land on. Three then four is what makes a chord minor. Turn the gaps round, four then three, and you get D major: D, F♯, A.
In these keys and scales
D minor turns up in twelve scales on the site. It’s home, the i, in D minor, D harmonic minor and D melodic minor. In F major it’s the vi, the relative minor. In C major it’s the ii and in B♭ major the iii, and on the minor side it’s the iv of A minor and the v of G minor. The numeral beside each scale names the job, and the name opens that scale’s page.
| Family | Scales |
|---|---|
| Major | |
| Natural minor | |
| Harmonic minor | |
| Melodic minor | |
| Pentatonic |
Progressions
Two of these start on D minor and head for C. In ii–V–I it goes to G first, and G takes it home. ii–IV–I goes by F instead, which gets there more gently. Only in i–VII–VI is D minor home itself, and the bass steps down two frets at a time, D to C to B♭.