Cm7 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Cm7 — shell voicings
Cm7 is C, Eb, G and Bb — Cm with the flat seventh added.
It sounds smooth and unhurried. The ii of every major key, so most progressions you already know begin on one of these.
Cm7 notes and formula
| C | Eb | G | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 |
Pre-dominant — the ii of a major key, and a tonic in its own right.
Also written Cmin7, C-7 or C minor 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Cm7
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
Cm7 has 6 of them, on the low-middle three, the bottom three strings, strings 5-3-2 and strings 6-4-3, from open position up to the 13th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the C shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with x3131x — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Cm7 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 2 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x3131x | 1st fret | C, root position | C | all fretted |
| x3134x | 1st fret | C, root position | Eb | all fretted |
| x35343 | 3rd fret | C, root position | G | barred |
| xx5546 | 4th fret | G, 2nd inversion | Bb | all fretted |
| 8-10-8-8-8-8 | 8th fret | C, root position | C | barred |
| x-x-10-12-11-11 | 10th fret | C, root position | Eb | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 15 drop 2, 9 drop 3 and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Cm7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (D), the 11 (F) and the 13 (A).
How to use Cm7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Cm7 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 Cm7 belongs to C minor (the i), Eb major (the vi), F minor (the v), G minor (the iv), Ab major (the iii) and Bb major (the ii).
What to play over Cm7
Every note of Cm7 is in C minor pentatonic, C blues, C dorian, C natural minor and C phrygian.
Chords near Cm7
Change one note of Cm7 and you have Cm (drop the flat seventh), Cm6 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth), Cm7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Cm9 (add the ninth), CmMaj7 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh) or Cmadd9 (the flat seventh becomes a ninth).
Cm7 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Cm7’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.