Guitar chords in the key of F# minor

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

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