A Minor Chord Progressions, Examples With Guitar Chords

A selection of A minor chord progressions with guitar chords and suggested scales for improvisation and melody writing.

Table of Contents

Introduction

On this page are a collection of example A minor chord progressions for you to play. Each chord progression has a suggested style, but you can modify and adapt the underlying chords to fit your preferred musical genre.

For each of the chord progressions in A minor below, we’ve provided example guitar chord shapes for you to play. Again, these are provided as examples only; you can use other chord shapes to play the same chords if you prefer.

Most of the chord progressions below use chords from the A natural minor scale (which is the same as an A Aeolian scale). This scale contains the notes A, B, C, D, E, F, G. It is the most commonly-used A minor scale in rock and pop music. Some of the progressions use additional chords from either the A harmonic minor scale or A melodic minor scale.

You can find more about the music theory behind the chords used in the progressions on this page, and see all of the available chords in A minor, here: Chords In A Minor
You can find out how to play A minor scales on your guitar on this page: A Minor Scale Guitar
A complete guitar scale directory can be found on this page: Guitar Scales

If you have any questions regarding the contents of this page, feel free to ask them in the comments section!

A Minor Chord Progression 1

Suggested Style: Indie

This chord progression could be given a laid-back, indie-rock feel. It uses chords from the A natural minor. Improvise over this progression using an A natural minor scale.

A Minor Chord Progression 2

Suggested Style: Minor Blues

This is a 12-bar blues progression in A minor that uses minor chords throughout. (You could substitute the Em in bar 12 with an E7 to create a stronger turnaround.)

A Minor Chord Progression 3

Suggested Style: Folk-Rock

We’ve suggested that you play this A minor chord progression in 3/4, to give it a nice folk-rock feel. It uses chords from the A natural minor scale.

A Minor Chord Progression 4

Suggested Style: Classic Metal

This type of chord progression, featuring fifths, or "power chords", is often heard in heavy metal. It provides a great basis for melodies, riffs, and guitar solos!

A Minor Chord Progression 5

Suggested Style: Jazz-Funk

The use of minor seventh chords in this chord progression gives it a jazz-funk sound. Most of the chords are from the A natural minor scale, but we’ve also used a D7 and E7 from the A harmonic minor scale, so if you’re improvising over this chord sequence, use this scale in bars 4 and 8.

A Minor Chord Progression 6

Suggested Style: Classic Rock

All of the chords of this A minor chord progression are from the A harmonic minor scale, so you can use this scale for melody writing / improvisation using this progression.

You could also use the A natural minor scale for improvising over all of the chords other than the E7 chords; you could switch to the A harmonic minor scale whenever you reach these.

A Minor Chord Progression 7

Suggested Style: Classical

This chord progression uses chords from the A harmonic minor scale – a common scale for baroque and classical music. If you’re writing a melody of improvising over this chord progression, you can use the A harmonic minor scale all the way through.

A Minor Chord Progression 8

Suggested Style: Latin

The final A minor chord progression is a little different, as it uses chords that are all taken from the A melodic minor scale, including a jazzy-sounding A minor / major 7^th chord. Try improvising using this scale all the way through the progression, which could be given a Latin / bossa-nova style.

Notes On Using These Chord Progressions

All of the A minor chord progressions on this page use chords drawn from either the A natural minor, A melodic minor or A melodic minor scales.

We’ve suggested scales that you could use either to improvise or to write melodies with, but these are only suggestions; there are other scales that you could use for either purpose (not least the A pentatonic minor scale, which will fit over most of the progressions).

These chord progressions are provided as illustrations only; there are many more potential chord progressions in the key of A minor. You could convert any of the progressions above into other music styles, and add / take away chords as you feel fit.

Of course, you could also transpose any of the above chord progressions into other keys.

We hope that you have fun with these chord progressions. If you have any questions on any of the contents of this page, feel free to ask them in the comments section below.

Happy playing!