Knowing how to play the basic chords is an important part of learning how to play the piano. It’s part of the fundamental knowledge for all pianists. You will often see song chords for piano written out as their letter symbols, rather than broken down into their individual notes on a piano staff.
Just having to know the whole chords, such as the Bm chord, off by heart, can be challenging, because a lot of information provided by sheet music will actually be missing. For instance, the B minor chord notes aren’t detailed by a piece of music that simply details a “Bm” should be played.
Taking the time to learn the basic chords means that as well as sheet music you can quickly work out and play guitar chords on your piano.
There are a few little tricks to make sure you’re playing the right notes, and to learn about things like inversions, to open up the possibilities of playing chord progressions in B minor and working out which notes and fingers should be used.
What is a B minor chord ?
There are many piano chord progressions that include the B minor chord. The “formula” to play the B minor basic triad chord is relatively easy, and there are some cheat methods to work out the way to understand the notes.
The first chords you will look to learn on the piano, the triads, include the b minor piano chord. Most piano courses walk you through all of the standard major and minor chords, between A and G.
The notes of a Bm chord are B, D, and F#.
The B minor triad chord is actually a bit trickier than some of the other listed chords, because a B minor piano chord actually uses the note F#, often played by the pinky finger. B major uses two black keys, whereas B minor uses just one black key.
Because of how inversions work on the instrument, sometimes the awkward F# note can be played by the pinky finger, but sometimes the middle finger and sometimes the ring finger, or pointer. More on the B minor chord inversions below.
B minor chord root position
When we say that minor and major chords are in root position, what musicians mean is that we are actually using all the notes of that minor chord but by starting on the lowest alphabetical note in the chord, our root, as the bottom note of our chord, or of our triad.
We then use three fingers to play three notes, with the lowest finger on the root, our middle finger on the third of the chord, and our highest finger on the highest note of the chord. This makes it easy to remember. For both B minor chords and B major chords, B is the root note when played in “root position”.
You may notice that we have not indicated which finger is going to be used for which, because this actually changes depending on if we are playing the chords in the left or right hand. When a musician sets out to learn chords, often they are looked up like a musician would look for a recipe.
However, since as pianists we can play chords with two hands, or with either hand, it requires a little more thinking than this. In order to learn what notes are in a B minor chord, you need to first learn which order each hand would play. In the early stages of your piano journey, you may just be focusing on learning how to play B minor chord and its notes, not worrying too much about fingerings. You can adjust your technique at a later date.
Chord inversions written in sheet music
Below you will find the sheet music representing the left and right hand for all three chord inversions of B minor. You will also find all of the chords represented in grid for, corresponding to each fingering.
These diagrams in sheet music contain each of the inversions: root position, first inversion and second inversion. Ensure that you get the fingering correct whether you are playing left or right hand. On the B minor chord for the left hand your fingers 5-3-1 should be used to play the notes, but on the right hand, fingers are in the order 1-3-5.
B minor chord first inversion
The simplest way to think about how inversions work is by comparing a chord to a triangle, a basic geometric shape with three sides. Once you can imagine that we are using a shape, we can then imagine that all three sides have a label. Once we have a shape set, we can imagine that we take that same shape and rotate it, allowing each side to be on the bottom (or first). This is the way that musicians use and think about inversions, we take the shape and by rotating the chord, since the notes are the exact same for each of the shapes, even though the lowest note is not the root, the chord still maintains its identity.
So, our first inversion now has our root on the top of the chord, instead of on the bottom of the chord, as was placed earlier. B, D, F# becomes D, F#, B. The B has been moved up one octave.
A chord inversion can play the same notes, across multiple octaves, and still be identified as a B minor chord. The notes will still be the same, but not in “root position”.
B minor chord second inversion
The second inversion of any chord uses the same principle as the first inversion, except now we have put what was the top note of our triad shape to the bottom.
The note order now goes: F#, B, D.
This allows the sound to be slightly different, but try not to think of this as a separate chord from B minor, think about it and listen to how similar it is to your other minor chord in root position, but this version just happens to be rotated slightly.
When to play inversions of the B minor chord
Simply put there are going to be many situations where as a pianist you might choose to play inversions instead of playing chords that are written in their root position.
A common reason to use an inverted chord instead of a root position chord is when you’re playing in a position, in a position and in a key, and you are able to change quickly to the notes in a different chord without needing to move your entire hand. For instance, if you’re changing from a B minor chord to a D major chord, we first think about if those two chords have any notes in B minor chord, or notes in common. How to play piano chords B minor and D major:
B minor: B D F#
D major: D F# A
In this case, since the two chords here share two different notes, you would try and maintain the finger positions in this version of the music, and then only move the note that isn’t the same for the two chords, often by just moving your pinky or thumb by one or two keys. In this case, we just change our B note to an A note, and now we’re playing a D major chord in an inversion, but it allows us to only change one note instead of moving our entire hand up or down in either direction.
This can be something of a “hack” for piano beginners.
It is always easier to play a chord by moving one finger in songs, than a version that needs to move all three fingers, and if it still sounds just as good, then you might opt to play or compose a song in this way.
You certainly don’t have to use the inversions, but you may find the easy versions of chords with inversions are actually an easier version of a chord to play than the opposite by moving the entirety of your hand in either direction.
B minor variations
It is also important to understand the difference between inversions and variations. Variations include jazz piano chords such as the B minor 7th chord, which change the characteristic of the sound by adding a new note. In this instance, an A note is added to create the Bm seventh piano chord. Notice it has an unusual, jazz or blues tone when you play it.
B minor arpeggios
To learn how to play B minor chord arpeggios on piano in one position, you will simply use the identical fingerings found in the previous sections for playing the chords in a regular position. An arpeggio will simply allow you to cycle through the notes in a provided rhythm.
- B minor arpeggios in root position – Cycle through B, D, F#
- B minor arpeggios in first inversion – Cycle through D, F#, B
- B minor arpeggios in second inversion – Cycle through F#, B, D
Songs in the key of B minor
There are thousands of songs out there, and that means plenty of songs in the key of B minor, from classical music through to contemporary pop and rock.
Advanced players may also understand that there are also relative key signatures, meaning they share the same notes and chords, just in a slightly different order.
Play popular songs with the B minor chord
D major is the relative major of B minor. The two share the same key signature and this means there are two sharps – F# & C#. The key of D major is overwhelmingly popular with beginners learning guitar chords, and many strumming or folk style guitar songs are written in the key of D major. Understanding that it is B minor’s relative major chord can help your understanding of the notes and chords.
Whether you understand the relative major or not, it doesn’t matter for beginners looking to learn songs and chord progressions in B minor.
Edward Grieg – In The Hall of the Mountain King
Edward Grieg was a very famous composer, who wrote a lot of incredible music in the 19th century. His song In The Hall of the Mountain King is a great example of music composed at a different time. It allows even beginners to use the versions of the easy B minor chord explained here, and provoke the same sense of grandeur playing a song that everyone knows. This is a simple and common chord progression in B minor.
Greensleeves
An incredible song to play with B minor in, is the classic ballad Greensleeves. Here you will only play the chords in the left hand with two fingers, but the right hand will be playing the minor third of the chord.
The inversions happen throughout the song, and by putting the third of the chord in the right hand it allows the left hand to play perfect fifths, providing a deep and rich, open sound in your instrument.
This song is playable even by beginners, it can help you to understand relative majors and the circle of fifths.
Final thoughts on the B minor chord
Learning how to play the basic triad chords on the instrument is the one of the fundamental methods to increase your skill level on a new instrument.
While playing your new chords, don’t fret and become frustrated while you’re exploring the new notes, the new arpeggios, variations, and inversions. It is a case of practicing. If you are able to learn the most mainstream piano chords (B minor being one of them) you will quickly be able to establish an arsenal of hundreds of songs you can play or work out.
Our lessons walk you through the mainstream chords and playing methods, as well as teaching you how to put your skills into practice playing actual songs. Start your free trial with Skoove today!
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