Guitar chords in the key of A minor

The seven chords of A minor are Am, Bdim, C, Dm, Em, F, G. Each one has a job in the key, and each tends towards particular chords next.

• Am, the tonic of A minor. Usually goes to Dm or Em: the departure, carrying the flat 6th with it.
• Bdim, the supertonic of A minor. Usually goes to Em: roots falling a fifth: the minor key’s ii–V.
• C, the mediant of A minor. Usually goes to F or G: a fourth up inside the relative major.
• Dm, the subdominant of A minor. Usually goes to Em: subdominant into dominant, the cadence the minor key borrows from major.
• Em, the dominant of A minor. Usually goes to Am: the leading tone rises into the minor tonic.
• F, the submediant of A minor. Usually goes to G or Dm: the Aeolian cadence: ♭VI–♭VII–i closes the key with no dominant at all.
• G, the subtonic of A minor. Usually goes to Am or C: a whole tone into the tonic, no leading tone, so it arrives rather than resolves.

Where a chord tends to go follows Walter Piston’s table of usual root progressions in Harmony (W. W. Norton); see the sources.