C Minor Chord (Cm) on Guitar, Piano and Ukulele – How to Play it

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

Cm chord [Musical explanation]

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

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

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

Thus, this confirms that C minor chord is defined by:

Root (C) – Minor Third (E♭) – Perfect Fifth (G)

Cm Guitar Chord

The Cm 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 Cm on guitar:

Let’s start by analyzing the 3 circles in blue, which indicate that on the strings 4 (D), 3 (G) and 2 (B) we have to place the fingers 3 (ring finger), 4 (pinky) and 2 (middle). In this case we need to play a barre chord, so we have to use as well the index finger (1) to press down the strings from 5 to 1.

Note by the way the number 3 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  G  C  E♭ G

This simply means that in the:

And at the bottom we find the numbers:

1  5  1  ♭3  5

This indicates that in the:

⚠️ Important: it is not mandatory to memorize all this information to play the Cm 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 Cm guitar chord

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

C minor triad chords and inversions

Triads

First Inversion (Cm/E♭)

Second Inversion (Cm/G)

What chords are in C minor?

The C minor scale harmonized results on the following chords:

Cm (I) – Dº (iiº) – E♭ (III) – Fm (iv) – Gm (v) – A♭ (VI) – b♭ (VII)

Cm Ukulele Chord

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

Cm Piano Chord

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

Music scales in which the C minor chord can be found

• A# major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • A# Cm Dm D# F Gm Adim
• G# major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • G# A#m Cm C# D# Fm Gdim
• D# major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • D# Fm Gm G# A# Cm Ddim
• C natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Cm Ddim E♭ Fm Gm A♭ B♭
• F natural minor scale (harmonized with triads
  • Fm Gdim A♭ B♭m Cm Db E♭
• G natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Gm Adim B♭ Cm Dm E♭ F
• C harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Cm Ddim E♭aug Fm G A♭ Bdim
• G harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Gm Adim B♭aug Cm D E♭ G♭dim
• C melodic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Cm Dm E♭aug F G Adim Bdim
• A# melodic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • A#m Cm D♭aug D# F Gdim Adim

C Minor Chord PDF

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