C Major Chord on Guitar, Piano and Ukulele – How to Play it

The C major chord is built from a root note (C), a major third (E), and a perfect fifth (G):

C chord [Musical explanation]

The C major chord is a major triad with formula 1 – 3 – 5. Therefore, to build it we need C (1), E (3), G (5):

This is due to the fact that a major chord is made up of 2 third intervals:

If we apply this principle to the C chord we obtain that:

Thus, this confirms that the C major chord is defined by:

Root (C) – Major Third (E) – Perfect Fifth (G)

C Guitar Chord

The C major chord guitar has the following shape on the fretboard:

Let’s analyze in detail this chord diagram above to make sure that we understand how to play the C on guitar:

Let’s start by analyzing the 3 circles in blue, which indicate that on the strings 5 (A), 4 (D) and 2 (B) we have to place the fingers 3 (ring finger), 2 (middle) and 1 (index).

Note by the way the number 1 in black on the left that indicates on which fret we start playing the chord.

On the other hand, at the top we see that we have the characters:

X  C  E  G  C  E

This simply means that in the:

And at the bottom we find the numbers:

1  3 5  1  3

This indicates that in the:

⚠️ Important: it is not mandatory to memorize all this information to play the C chord on guitar. But it is highly recommended to know it in order to understand the musical theory behind each chord.

Other ways to play the C guitar chord

In addition to the diagram shown at the beginning of the article, we can also find the C chord in the following fretboard positions:

C major triad chords and inversions

Triads

First Inversion (C/E)

Second Inversion (C/G)

What chords are in C major?

The B major scale harmonized results on the following chords:

C (I) – Dm (ii) – Em (iii) – F (IV) – G (V) – Am (vi) – Bº (viiº)

A very good chord to practice with C is the G chord, since it is the fifth chord in the progression and the dominant.

C Ukulele Chord

Here you can see as well the C uke chord diagram:

C Piano Chord

To play the C chord on piano we only need to find the same music notes on its keys:

Music scales in which the C major chord can be found

• C major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • C Dm Em F G Am Bdim
• F major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • F Gm Am B♭ C Dm Edim
• G major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • G Am Bm C D Em G♭dim
• A minor natural scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Am Bdim C Dm Em F G
• E natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Em G♭dim G Am Bm C D
• D natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Dm Edim F Gm Am B♭ C
• F harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Fm Gdim A♭aug B♭m C D♭ Edim
• E harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Em G♭dim Gaug Am B C E♭dim
• F natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Fm Gm A♭aug B♭ C Ddim Edim
• G natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Gm Am B♭aug C D Edim G♭dim

C Major Chord PDF

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