Cm69 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Cm69 — drop 2 voicings
Cm69 is C, Eb, G, A and D — Cm6 with the ninth added as well.
It sounds cool and entirely at rest. No seventh, so nothing leans: a common last chord of a minor tune.
Minor tonic — nothing in it is pulling.
Cm69 notes and formula
| C | Eb | G | A | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
Also written Cm6/9, Cmin6/9 or C-6/9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Cm69
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
Cm69 has 13 of them, on the middle four strings, the bottom four strings and the top four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: C in the bass, Eb in the bass, A in the bass and D in the bass. The one to learn first is the C shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the middle four strings, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep Eb (it fixes the quality) and A and D (what the symbol is about). Let G and C go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play Cm69 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (F).
All 10 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x3123x, 1st fret, C, root position, top note D, all fretted
- x30045, open position, C, root position, top note A, 2 open strings
- 8677xx, 6th fret, C, root position, top note D, all fretted
- x67788, 6th fret, Eb, 1st inversion, top note C, all fretted
- 8-x-7-8-8-10, 7th fret, C, root position, top note D, barred
- 8-x-10-8-10-10, 8th fret, C, root position, top note D, barred
- x-x-10-8-10-10, 8th fret, C, root position, top note D, barred
- x-10-10-8-10-10, 8th fret, G, 2nd inversion, top note D, barred
- 11-10-10-12-10-10, 10th fret, Eb, 1st inversion, top note D, barred
- x-15-13-14-15-x, 13th fret, C, root position, top note D, all fretted
How to use Cm69
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Cm69 is Dm7♭5 to G7♭9: the ii and the V of C minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Cm69 belongs to G minor (the iv, the subdominant) and Bb major (the ii, the supertonic).
What to play over Cm69
Every note of Cm69 is in C dorian and C melodic minor.
Chords near Cm69
Change one note of Cm69 and you have Cm6 (drop the ninth), Cm9 (the sixth becomes the flat seventh), CmMaj9 (the sixth becomes the major seventh), Cmadd9 (drop the sixth) or C69 (the minor third becomes the major third).
Cm69 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.