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♭)

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

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 4 (D), 3 (G) and 2 (B) we have to place the fingers 2 (middle), 3 (ring finger) and 4 (pinky). In this case we have 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 2 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 Cb 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♭)

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 B major chord can be found

• C♭ major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • C♭ D♭m E♭m F♭ G♭ A♭m B♭dim
• F♭ major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • F♭ G♭m A♭m B♭♭ C♭ D♭m E♭dim
• G♭ major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • G♭ A♭m B♭m C♭ D♭ E♭m G♭♭dim
• A♭ minor natural scale (harmonized with triads)
  • A♭m B♭dim C♭ D♭m E♭m F♭ G♭
• E♭ natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • E♭m G♭♭dim G♭ A♭m B♭m C♭ D♭
• D♭ natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • D♭m E♭dim F♭ G♭m A♭m B♭♭ C♭
• F♭ harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • F♭m G♭dim A♭♭aug B♭♭m C♭ D♭♭ E♭dim
• E♭ harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • E♭m G♭♭dim G♭aug A♭m B♭ C♭ E♭♭dim
• F♭ natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • F♭m G♭m A♭♭aug B♭♭ C♭ D♭dim E♭dim
• G♭ natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • G♭m A♭m B♭♭aug C♭ D♭ E♭dim G♭♭dim

C♭ Major Chord PDF

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