Chords in F mixolydian

F · Gm · A° · B♭ · Cm · Dm · E♭

The course explains what this page shows in Lesson 19 · Harmonizing the scale.

The chords in F mixolydian

  1. IFF7
  2. iiGmGm7
  3. iii°A°Am7♭5
  4. IVB♭B♭maj7
  5. vCmCm7
  6. viDmDm7
  7. ♭VIIE♭E♭maj7

The chords of F mixolydian are F, Gm, A°, B♭, Cm, Dm and E♭. With a seventh added they become F7, Gm7, Am7♭5, B♭maj7, Cm7, Dm7 and E♭maj7.

If you stack every other note of F mixolydian, starting from each degree in turn, these are the chords you get. Nobody chose them: each one is built from the scale's own notes, arranged in thirds.

Every chord, where it lives

IFiiGmiii°A°IVB♭vCmviDm♭VIIE♭
Open15131♭3♭51♭3♭515111♭315♭315151
Fret 11♭3♭5
Fret 22fr151351
Fret 33fr151♭3513fr1353fr151♭35
Fret 55fr15155♭35fr1♭3♭515fr1♭355fr151♭355fr15113
Fret 77fr151137fr1♭5♭37fr1513517fr1♭35
Fret 88fr151♭3518fr135
Fret 1010fr13510fr151♭3510fr1♭31♭510fr15155♭310fr151♭351

The grid places seven chords across eight home frets on DADGAD guitar. Every chord is within reach from the open position.

Read down a column to find one chord all over the neck. Each shape appears once, in the row for the fret it starts on. The line in the margin marks the rows your hand covers from a position where every chord of the key is within reach. In this key that position is the open position.

Shapes for each chord

F I
151311135115132fr151351
Gm ii
♭33fr151♭3513fr151♭355fr15155♭3
A° iii°
♭51♭3♭5♭51♭3♭5♭3♭51♭3♭5
B♭ IV
15111517fr1513517fr15135
Cm v
1♭311♭311♭38fr151♭351
Dm vi
5♭3♭35♭35♭3♭3
E♭ ♭VII
151511515151151

These are the most playable shapes for each chord, starting from the lowest position. Every shape fits within the reach of one hand, so none of them needs a finger you do not have.

Progressions in F mixolydian

Three chord
  1. IF
  2. IVB♭
  3. vCm
FIB♭IVCmvCDE♭FFGAB♭C+2+1+2+1+2

One of the six lines between these chords is flat: that note belongs to both chords, so it stays where it is. No voice moves more than two semitones.

Every one of these chords comes from F mixolydian.

Twelve-bar blues
  1. I7F7
  2. I7F7
  3. I7F7
  4. I7F7
  5. IV7B♭7
  6. IV7B♭7
  7. I7F7
  8. I7F7
  9. V7C7
  10. IV7B♭7
  11. I7F7
  12. V7C7
F7I7B♭7IV7F7I7C7V7B♭7IV7F7I7C7V7CB♭CCB♭CCE♭DE♭EDE♭EFFFGFFGAA♭AB♭A♭AB♭−2+2−2+2−1+1+1−2+1+1+2−2+2−1+1+1−2+1+1

Five of the 24 lines between these chords are flat: those notes belong to both chords, so they stay where they are. No voice moves more than two semitones. The progression lasts twelve bars, but a repeated chord is not a change, so the ladder shows only the six places where the harmony moves.

These are the third and the seventh of each chord on their own. Together they decide whether a chord is major, minor or dominant, which is why they are called guide tones. If you play only these two notes, you can still hear the chords change. If you play only the root and the fifth, you cannot. None of the twelve lines between these chords is flat, so every voice moves at every change. No voice moves more than two semitones. The progression lasts twelve bars, but a repeated chord is not a change, so the ladder shows only the six places where the harmony moves.

F7I7B♭7IV7F7I7C7V7B♭7IV7F7I7C7V7E♭DE♭EDE♭EAA♭AB♭A♭AB♭−1+1+1−2+1+1−1+1+1−2+1+1

Two of these chords go outside F mixolydian, borrowing A♭ and E (B♭7, C7). No single key contains all of them. Every one is a dominant seventh, and a dominant seventh pulls toward the chord whose root is a fifth below its own, one step anticlockwise on the circle (F7 → B♭, B♭7 → E♭, C7 → F). A chord drawn dashed, here and on the circle, goes outside the key.

There are two progressions in F mixolydian, including Three chord (F B♭ Cm) and Twelve-bar blues (F7 F7 F7 F7 B♭7 B♭7 F7 F7 C7 B♭7 F7 C7).

Each row is one progression. It is written first in roman numerals, which name each chord by the degree of the scale it is built on, and then as the chords those numerals stand for in this key. A dashed outline means the chord borrows a note that F mixolydian does not contain. Under each progression, a diagram follows every note from one chord to the next. A flat line is a note that stays where it is, and a sloped line is labeled with the number of semitones the note moves.

F mixolydian on the circle of fifths

—1♯2♯3♯4♯5♯6♯5♭4♭3♭2♭1♭CAmGEmDBmA°iii°F♯mEC♯mBG♯mF♯D♯mD♭B♭mA♭FmE♭♭VIICmvB♭IVGmiiFIDmviF Mixolydian2♭

Each step clockwise around the wheel moves up a perfect fifth and adds a sharp to the key signature, or takes a flat away. The small numbers around the rim show each key's signature. F mixolydian has two flats in its key signature.

Why the chords land where they do

The two rings work in pairs. Each minor key on the inner ring is the relative minor of the major key just outside it: the two are built from the same seven notes and share a key signature. C major and A minor are one such pair.

This pairing is why a key's chords gather in one place. Its three major chords, F, B♭ and E♭ (the I, IV and ♭VII), sit next to each other on the outer ring, each a fifth from its neighbor. Its three minor chords, Gm, Cm and Dm (the ii, v and vi), are the relative minors of those same three, so they sit directly beneath them. Together, six of the seven chords form a block three wedges wide.

The remaining chord, A° (the iii°), is diminished. It sits four steps away from the block and is outlined on its own. Every major key, and every mode of the major scale, has exactly one diminished chord, and it is always the one that sits apart.

In this way the wheel works as a map of harmonic distance. Chords inside the block sound as though they belong to one key, and the further a chord sits from the block, the more it sounds like a departure. That is why progressions such as I–IV–V and ii–V–I move between neighbors rather than leaping across the wheel.

One step, on the neck

On the guitar, a perfect fifth is a shape you already know: the power chord, a root followed by the note two frets higher on the next string up, wherever the two strings are a fourth apart. Here it starts on F. The first step lands on the same fret, because the pair D–A is a fifth apart.

DADGAD3456FCG

Now think of it as a chain. The C you are already fretting is the fifth of F, and it is also the root of the next chord clockwise. Play the same shape starting from C and you reach G. F → C → G is two steps around the wheel, and the same movement repeated up the neck.

The pair A–D is a fourth apart, so that step uses the usual two-fret shape. Higher up, the G–A pair breaks the pattern again. To work out any pair, count the semitones between the two strings and subtract that from seven. A fourth gives two frets, a fifth gives none, and a major third gives three.

F mixolydian has two flats in its key signature. Six of its seven chords form one block on the circle of fifths.

Six of F mixolydian's seven chords sit together in one block on the wheel. The seventh, A°, sits apart.

The words on this page were written with the help of AI and may contain a mistake. Its diagrams are drawn by Everyfret’s own software. How Everyfret is made