C# Minor Chord (C#m) on Guitar, Piano and Ukulele – How to Play the C sharp

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

C#m 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 C#m chord we obtain that:

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

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

In other words the Cb minor chord is the same as the Cm chord but lowered by a half step.

C#m Guitar Chord

The C#m 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#m on guitar. To do that we will 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 4 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 C#m 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#m guitar chord

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

C# minor triad chords and inversions

Triads

First Inversion (C#m/E)

Second Inversion (C#m/G#)

C#m Ukulele Chord

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

C#m Piano Chord

To play the C#m 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

• B major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • B C#m D#m E F# G#m A#dim
• A major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • A Bm C#m D E F#m G#dim
• E major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • E F#m G#m A B C#m D#dim
• C# natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • C#m D#dim E F#m G#m A B
• F# natural minor scale (harmonized with triads
  • F#m G#dim A Bm C#m D E
• G# natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • G#m A#dim B C#m D#m E F#
• C# harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • C#m D#dim Eaug F#m G# A B#dim
• G# harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • G#m A#dim Baug C#m D# E Gdim
• C# melodic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • C#m D#m Eaug F# G# A#dim B#dim
• B melodic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • Bm C#m Daug E F# G#dim A#dim

C# Minor Chord PDF

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