Diatonic Chords & Inversions in C Minor

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman and in this lesson we're going to learn how to play diatonic chords and inversions in the key of C minor. Let's come to the piano to get started. First let's review what the word diatonic means.
Diatonic simply means it belongs to that key that you're in.
For example, in the key of C minor these keys that I'm touching
are diatonic in C natural minor. They belong in the key of C minor just like you belong in your family.
So you are diatonic to your family.
Now, in the key of C natural minor, these keys are diatonic and any other key, for example, F-sharp
would not be diatonic in that key. It would be like inviting a friend over for dinner.
You can have them show up, and sometimes in the key of C minor you can throw in some extra notes, sometimes
they're just, they're visitors, they're not diatonic to that key.
So, when we play the diatonic chords of C minor, these are the only notes we will choose from.
I should say specifically C natural minor because right now that's the key that we're using right now that's the key that we're using.
So, let's try together to play and name out loud the chords.
The diatonic chords of C minor starting with the i chord. So, using your right hand try this along with me.
And we're going to say out loud C minor I chord. Now you try.
Good, now for the ii chord can you figure out what you would play next?
Remember every one of these notes has to step up to the next diatonic key in C minor.
So, C steps up to D E-flat steps up to F, G steps up to A-flat. So, this would be our ii chord.
D F A-flat,
and we would say out loud:
D diminished ii chord. Why a diminished chord? Well, we know that D minor is this:
D major is this:
How do we get a minor chord? We take the middle key of the triad, move it down a half step.
How do we get diminished? We take this and move it down a half step.
It so happens that in a minor scale, the ii chord will always be diminished
If it's a diatonic chord. Okay and that's what we're doing today. So D diminished ii chord.
Now all of these keys have to step up again to get to our III chord. D will move up to E-flat,
F will move up to G, A-flat will move up to B-flat.
How did I know that? Well, I'm just thinking of the keys of C minor.
If these are the only keys I'm choosing from, my chords are just one at a time going up the keys of the diatonic scale.
So if these are the only keys I can choose from, to get from the ii chord I know I have to next
go here. I'm just moving every key of each chord up one step in the diatonic scale.
So that lands me here. What's the name of this chord?
It's an E-flat major III chord.
The III chord because it's the third note of C minor.
Okay so say it with me E-flat major III chord.
Now we're going up another step. Can you figure out the iv chord and play it for me?
If you're playing this you're correct it's F A-flat C.
Again, we just took these keys from the III chord and everything had to go up a step. We couldn't go here because E is not diatonic in the key. We had to go to the next diatonic key which is F
and the next diatonic key from G is A-flat. The next diatonic key from B-flat is C.
So, using those diatonic keys this is our iv chord, so say F minor iv chord now you try.
Now can you find the V chord?
Move everything up a step using only the diatonic keys.
If you're playing this, you're correct. So we would say G minor v chord.
Good, now let's go up to the VI chord right here.
Is this chord major or minor?
You can tell by your ear, or you can tell because there are
three half steps in between here on the bottom, but only two in between on top.
Whoops, and that's the formula for a major chord. A-flat major VI chord. Now you say it.
Now we'll go up another step.
Everything moves up. Now we're B-flat major VII chord. You say it.
That brings us at last back to C minor I chord. You say it.
Good. Now on your own, I'd like you to go through all of those chords one at a time naming them as you play them like this: C minor i chord, D diminished ii chord, E-flat major III chord. Remember, the diminished chord is your ii chord in minor.
A ii chord will always be diminished in a minor key. Okay, go through each chord playing and naming it
on your own. So press pause to do that on your own, then press play to go on.
Now let's try the same thing for harmonic minor. Remember that in harmonic minor, B-flat becomes B natural.
So now B natural is diatonic, but B-flat is not. So we'll go straight from A-flat to B natural.
So what chords will that change?
That won't affect the i chord. It won't affect the ii chord, but our III chord used to be here with the B-flat,
so that has to become a B natural.
And this actually introduces a new kind of chord that we've never seen before. It's called augmented. An augmente ...