Guitar chords in the key of Bb minor

The seven chords of Bb minor are Bbm, Cdim, Db, Ebm, Fm, Gb, Ab. Each one has a job in the key, and each tends towards particular chords next.

• Bbm, the tonic of Bb minor. Usually goes to Ebm or Fm: the departure, carrying the flat 6th with it.
• Cdim, the supertonic of Bb minor. Usually goes to Fm: roots falling a fifth: the minor key’s ii–V.
• Db, the mediant of Bb minor. Usually goes to Gb or Ab: a fourth up inside the relative major.
• Ebm, the subdominant of Bb minor. Usually goes to Fm: subdominant into dominant, the cadence the minor key borrows from major.
• Fm, the dominant of Bb minor. Usually goes to Bbm: the leading tone rises into the minor tonic.
• Gb, the submediant of Bb minor. Usually goes to Ab or Ebm: the Aeolian cadence: ♭VI–♭VII–i closes the key with no dominant at all.
• Ab, the subtonic of Bb minor. Usually goes to Bbm or Db: 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.