Guitar chords in the key of C# minor

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

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