D# Minor Chord Scale, Chords in The Key of D Sharp Minor

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| Bb major | Bb minor| B major | B minor |

The D# minor chord scale is a series of chords that are in the key of D# minor. It’s a great scale to use to invoke emotions like anxiety, distress, hesitation, and darkness. This article will cover everything you need to know about the chords in the key of D# minor, how it differs from other scales, and why it’s important to know. The D# minor chord scale is identical to the Eb minor scale. If you are looking for the Eb minor scale, then you’re in the right place – we just call it D# minor.

What Are The Chords in The Key of D Sharp Minor

To find out the chords in the D# minor scale, you first need to find out what notes are in the D# minor scale.

The D# minor scale consists of:

When you have the notes in D sharp minor scale, you can use something called a chord scale formula to begin to work out the chords the scale contains. Each note included in the scale (seen above) has a chord assigned to it, and you can run each note through the minor chord scale formula to work these out.

The major & minor chord scale formulas are:

Because the key you’re working in is minor, you’ll want to use the minor chord scale formula, which is: minor, diminished, major, minor, minor, major, major. Using this chord scale formula, you plug it into the note from the D sharp minor scale.

Therefore the D# minor chord scale is made up of:

• D# minor
• E# diminished
• F# major
• G# minor
• A# minor
• B major
• C# major

If you don’t know how to play basic triads, you can use chord spellings to work out which notes to play. To do this, you always use the major scale and apply the correct chord spelling formula for the quality of chord you want to create. So, if you wanted to find a minor chord, you’d use the major scale of the root note you want to find it for, using the minor chord spelling to build it.

The most common chord spellings are:

• Major – 1, 3, 5
• Minor – 1, b3, 5
• Diminished – 1, b3, b5
• Augmented – 1, 3, #5

So let’s take the 3rd chord as an example. Seeing as it’s a F# major chord, you’ll want to use the minor spelling listed above (1, b3, 5), but use the F major scale. This is because the spellings are based on the major scale. So, take the F major scale, count the 1 note (F), then the 3 note and move it a semi-tone down (A#), then the 5 note (C#).

Chords in The Key of D# minor

All of the chords listed above, are in the D sharp minor scale. You can use these in any order to create chord progressions that sound great, in the key of D# minor. Some combinations will produce better results than others, but we urge you to try them out, flip around the chords and see what you get – the best chord progressions are made through trial and error.

You can use the chords above to make basic sounding progressions, but if you want to sound a bit more professional, you’ll want to start adding extensions, bass notes, and inversions. We cover this extensively in our Piano Chord Poster PDF guide, which comes with every purchase of a poster.

Which Notes Make Up The Chords of The D Sharp Minor Scale?

Once you know what chords are in the D# minor scale, it’s important to know the notes that make up these chords. Of course, you can work these out by yourself (and it’s better for learning to do this), but here they are for reference.

1. D sharp minor – D#, F#, A#
2. E sharp diminished – E#, G#, B
3. F sharp major – F#, A#, C#
4. G sharp minor – G#, B, D#
5. A sharp minor – A#, C#, E#
6. B major – B, D#, F#
7. C sharp major – C#, E#, G#

The Key of Eb Minor

If you haven’t noticed, the key of D# minor has the same notes as the key of Eb minor. The notes have different names, but they are exactly the same notes. However, this scale isn’t used so much due to the issues with musical notation it causes.

If you are playing in the key of Eb minor, it will sound the exact same but will be harder to put down in notation & read.

Common Chord Progressions in D Sharp Minor

You may also start with pre-made chord progressions that already sound appealing to get things going. These are some typical chord progressions that will work. You only need to replace the Roman numerals figures on the charts above with the corresponding numbers.

Anything with a 6, 7, 9 after it, is an extension chord, lowercase = minor, and uppercase = major.

• I–V–vi–IV
• V–vi–IV–I
• vi–IV–I–V
• IV–I–V–vi