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View the full lesson at Minor Keys | JustinGuitar
Wow that explains the progression of the Song Green Onions by Booker T and the Mgās which I learned on the organ a few months back F - Ab - Bb then Bb - Db - Eb then C - Eb - F. I was saying what progression is this. Thanks J!!!
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John, I am a little puzzled by your post. Green Onions is a 12-bar in F using chords F, Bb and C. All major chords. Youāve posted in a topic on minor keys. 
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When learning chord progressions using degrees, most of the lessons and songs on the site deal with the major keys (I, V, iv, IV progressions etc.).
Many (most?) of the songs I am drawn to are in minor keys, and so far, I have not bothered to āretrainā my brain to relabel the 1-chord as such and continue to think of it as simply the iv.
Am I creating problems for the future by doing this, just in case I ever get better?
Are there any other lazy learners like me? 
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Interesting topic Brian. I love me a good theory discussion 
Iām a little confused about the following however;
Are you talking about 2 parallel keys eg. C Major vs.C minor
Or
2 relative keys eg. C Major v A minor?
Or did you mean vi?
Either way, not sure what you mean by the iv of the Major? , becoming the I of the minor?
For what itās worth, key-wise, I always relate everything back to the Major scale.
So a minor scale is just a b3,b6,b7.
For Nashville style labelling minor/ major chord progressions, I āseeā minor and major as distinct, because Iām āthinkingā about their function in the progression.
Cheers, Shane
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Cheers, Shane
Yes, I could have expressed myself more clearly.
If Iām playing, say the Axis of Awesomeās 4-chord progression, in C major, thatās C, G, a, F , or I, V, iv, IV
Now, if I use those exact same chords (in a different order) the key of A minor (the relative minor to C), letās say a, C, F, G , my understanding is that the chord progression has now become i, III, VI, VII in the key of A minor.
My lazy brain prefers to simply think of it as iv, I, IV, V, keeping the same labels for the chords within the circle of 5th āgroup of sixā, irrespective of whether itās a major or minor key.
Am I overthinking this or even worse, completely mistaken? 
Iām not too far gone to change direction if necessary 
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NB iv should be vi
Interesting question.
Here is a wheely-thing for major and relative minor, where each could be considered as the start point.
Major
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, vii
Minor
i, ii, III, iv, v, VI, VII
Note that I like to use upper and lower case. Justin tends not to do this in his lesson notes.
And many of them have borrowed chords also. Notating your borrowed chords using Roman numerals will be more correct and appropriate and understandable if you count from the tonic minor chords as i instead of vi.
It depends if you are going to be communicating your progressions to other musicians too. If your chord progressions are written just for you they only need to make sense to you.
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Thanks Richard
(after posting, I wondered if I should edit and tag you, but you saved me the trouble )
That all makes sense.
Argh! Yes, Roman numeral typos! 
I bet the maths teacher in you is happy we switched to Arabic numerals, eh?
Iām happy with the circle thingy and more importantly the Co5 (I wonāt even question the vii in major keys 
) Iām with you on case-sensitivity.
Tbh, I donāt ever write down chord progression numbers, but was wondering if it would make life harder for me later on.
The only musician I ācommunicateā with really, is Chris, and he quite rightly never listens to a word I say. He just says āsend me the originalā and throws his eyes to heaven, whenever I change the key
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Hoisted
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Nothing to see here, move along, move along haha
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I like your wheel-thingy diagram, but am confused by how diminished chords fit in for minor keys (makes sense for major keys)
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They are the ātwoā chord and are still largely ignored / not played in minor keys.
Ok, is this correct?
Major
I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, viiDim
Minor
i, iiDim, III, iv, v, VI, VII
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Yes. You obtain the minor key chords by taking the major scale chords in order, but starting with vi. Then you renumber them starting at one (i).
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Yes. Ideally, the diminished has a superscript circle (letter o) after it but if that formatting isnāt immediately available the abbreviation dim is used. I didnāt write it in either of my lists by choice to keep only Roman nu erals knowing it was shown in words on my diagram.
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All makes sense now that iv - vi typo is clarified.
I suppose then, just reiterating, I see the minor/ major in its own āformatā.
eg. C Major is the I chord in the key of C, but itās the III chord in the key of Am.
Importantly, for my brain at least, this framework properly reflects the function of each chord in the keys progression. And it becomes even moreso as things get trickier as you start extending and/ or modifying chords.
But, in the end, I suppose its whatever continues to work for someone.
Cheers, Shane
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I know this is an old lesson, but I find it really frustrating that Justin didnāt choose to explain how using uppercase or lowercase roman numerals to indicate the quality of the chord. Iāve been trying to write progressions for songs in a minor key and using the āI, ii, iiiā etc. sequence is very confusing. Shouldnāt the letter case indicate the quality of the chords? And why not mention spelling them this way?
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Itās perhaps an oversight/ error by Justin in this very cursory lesson on minor keys. From my experience, its certainly not how the minor would generally be referenced. I canāt recall him referencing minor key chords in this way in any other lesson.
I always use the following format for minor as the default ;
i - iiĀ° - bIII - iv - v - bVI - bVII
to reflect both the chord quality and function, and its derivation from the Major scale. Makes the whole framework logical for me, across any scale type.
Cheers, Shane
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Hi Philip, I may be misunderstanding your question, the issue may be explained by the fact that Justin chooses to use all upper case Roman numerals to refer to chords, whether major or minor. I believe heās unusual in this, and I donāt recall his reasoning. Hereās a brief mention of it in another thread.
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