Chords in the Key of C Minor
The key of C minor contains seven chords: Cm, Ddim, Eb, Fm, Gm, Ab and Bb. Its key signature has three flats, Bb, Eb and Ab, and it is a dark, heavy sounding key used a lot in classical music, film scores and metal.
The seven chords on guitar
Each chord below opens its own page, with more shapes up the neck, audio for every voicing and a printable chart. Tap the play button on any card to hear it.
The seven chords on piano
The same seven chords on a keyboard, in root position. Each one opens its own page, with every inversion and the finger numbers for both hands.
iCmC E♭ G 
the home chord
ii°DdimD F A♭ 
the tense one, used sparingly
IIIEbE♭ G B♭ 
the relative major, the bright lift
ivFmF A♭ C 
the darker step away from home
vGmG B♭ D 
the pull home, usually played major
VIAbA♭ C E♭ 
the warm place to rest
VIIBbB♭ D F 
a step below home, the rock cadence
The seventh chords in C minor
Add one more note to each chord and the key gains its seventh chords, which is where most jazz and a good deal of soul begins.
Common progressions in C minor
- i - VI - III - VII
Cm Ab Eb Bb
The most common minor progression in popular music. On guitar this is four barres in a row, so it is the clearest case for a capo at the third fret, where it becomes the Am, F, C and G shapes.
- i - VII - VI
Cm Bb Ab
Three chords walking down in whole steps. This is the sound of most minor key rock and a lot of metal, and it works well on guitar as power chords, with C and Bb rooted on the A string at the third and first frets and Ab rooted on the low E string at the fourth.
- i - iv - v
Cm Fm Gm
The saddest of the group, because all three chords are minor and nothing pulls hard. Play the last chord as G or G7 instead of Gm and the ending suddenly sounds finished, which is the harmonic minor change at work.
- i - iv - VII - III
Cm Fm Bb Eb
A circling progression that keeps drifting toward the relative major. Loop it long enough and Eb starts to feel like home, which shows how close C minor and Eb major really sit.
Why these seven chords
On a stave, C minor is written with three flats, Bb, Eb and Ab, which is how a reader knows the key before playing a note.
The seven chords come from the C natural minor scale, C D Eb F G Ab Bb, with one chord stacked on each note using only notes from that scale. The pattern of qualities is the same in every minor key: minor, diminished, major, minor, minor, major, major. As numerals that is i, ii dim, III, iv, v, VI and VII, so Cm is home, Ddim is the odd one almost nobody plays, and Eb, Ab and Bb are the three major chords you lean on.
Two chords deserve a closer look. The VII, Bb, is a major chord a whole step below home, and the drop from Cm to Bb is the sound of a huge amount of rock, metal and film writing. The v, Gm, is minor in the natural minor scale, but songs constantly raise its third and play it major instead, as G or more often G7. The raised note is B natural, the leading note borrowed from the harmonic minor scale, and it is what makes the return to Cm feel final instead of just circling. G7 is the one chord you will meet again and again in C minor that is not in the list of seven, so do not be thrown when a chart shows it.
On guitar
C minor is an honest test of your barre chords. There is no open shape in the key. Cm is a barre at the third fret with the A minor shape, Fm is the E minor shape barred at the first fret, Gm is the same shape at the third, Ab is the E major shape at the fourth, Bb is the A major shape at the first, and Eb is usually the A major shape barred at the sixth fret. Ddim comes up so rarely that most players never learn a shape for it.
The route worth knowing is a capo at the third fret playing A minor shapes. With the capo there, your Am shape sounds Cm, C sounds Eb, Dm sounds Fm, Em sounds Gm, F sounds Ab and G sounds Bb. That turns the hardest common minor key on guitar into the easiest one, and you get open strings ringing again, which is most of why C minor songs sound thin when you grind through them on barres. Use the capo for singing and strumming, and learn the barre versions for playing with a band that has already capoed something else.
On piano
C minor sits well under the hand. The scale is C D Eb F G Ab Bb, so three black keys, and they fall in the natural places: the two black keys in the group of two give you Eb and Bb is next door in the group of three, with Ab beside it. Starting from C, the shape of the hand is the same easy position as C major with three notes lowered, which is why it is one of the first minor keys taught after A minor.
The chords themselves are comfortable. Cm is white, black, white. Fm and Ab both put a black key in the middle or under the thumb depending on the inversion, and Eb, Ab and Bb are the standard flat key shapes that reward using the thumb on white keys only. Ddim is the awkward one, since its Ab on top sits far from the D your thumb wants. Every triad and seventh here shows all of its inversions with fingering for both hands, which is the quickest way to find a smooth path from Cm to Ab to Eb without lifting the hand off the keys. One note about the v played major: G7 needs a B natural, which is a white key not in the key signature, so it is easy to reach but easy to forget.
Questions about the key of C Minor
What are the 7 chords in the key of C minor?
Cm, Ddim, Eb, Fm, Gm, Ab and Bb. Cm, Fm and Gm are minor, Eb, Ab and Bb are major, and Ddim is diminished.
What is the relative major of C minor?
Eb major. It has the same key signature, three flats, and exactly the same seven chords. The only difference is which chord feels like home: Eb in Eb major, Cm in C minor.
Why do songs in C minor use a G or G7 chord?
The fifth chord of the natural minor scale is Gm, but raising its third to B natural turns it into G or G7 and creates a strong pull back to Cm. That raised note comes from the harmonic minor scale, and G7 is the one common chord in C minor that is not one of the seven.
How many flats does C minor have?
Three: Bb, Eb and Ab. That is the same key signature as Eb major, its relative major.
What is the easiest way to play C minor songs on guitar?
Put a capo on the third fret and play A minor shapes. Am becomes Cm, C becomes Eb, Dm becomes Fm, Em becomes Gm, F becomes Ab and G becomes Bb, so you get open strings instead of six barre chords.
Why does C minor sound so dark?
Partly the chords, since the key has no open ringing shapes on guitar and three flats on piano, and partly its history. C minor is a serious, weighty key with a long classical tradition behind it, and film and metal writers still reach for it for the same reason.
What do the numbers next to each chord mean?
They are each chord's place in the key, written as Roman numerals. In C minor the i is Cm, the iv is Fm and the v is Gm. The numbering holds in every key, so the v of A minor is Em. That is why progressions get written as numerals like i, VI, III, VII: learn one and you have it in all twelve minor keys.
Why are some numerals capitals and some lowercase?
The case tells you the chord quality. Lowercase are minor, which in C minor means Cm, Fm and Gm. Capitals are major: Eb, Ab and Bb. The small circle on ii° means diminished, and here that is Ddim.
What is the relative major of C minor?
Eb major. It is written with three flats, Bb, Eb and Ab, the same signature as C minor, and it contains the same seven chords. Only the chord that sounds like home changes, from Cm to Eb.
The relative major
Eb major is written with the same three flats, Bb, Eb and Ab and contains the same seven chords as C minor. What changes is which one sounds like home, so the same shapes can be played brighter without learning anything new. Chords in the key of Eb