Guitar chords in the key of B minor

The seven chords of B minor are Bm, C#dim, D, Em, F#m, G, A. Each one has a job in the key, and each tends towards particular chords next.

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