About Cm — triad voicings
Cm is C, Eb and G — C with the third lowered a semitone.
It sounds darker than a major triad, and just as settled. The i of a minor key, and the vi, ii or iii of a major one.
Cm notes and formula
| C | Eb | G |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 |
Tonic — minor chords rest as readily as major ones.
Also written Cmin, C- or C minor. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Cm
Three notes on one string set. No seventh, so nothing is claimed about the chord beyond its quality.
Thin on their own, excellent over a bass line or against someone else’s harmony.
Cm has 47 of them, on the low-middle three, the high-middle three, the bottom three strings, the middle four strings, the top four strings, the bottom four strings, the top three strings, strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: C in the bass, Eb in the bass and G in the bass. The one to learn first is the C shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
6 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.
Start with x31013 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x31013 | open position | C, root position | G | 1 open string |
| x35543 | 3rd fret | C, root position | G | all fretted |
| x6554x | 4th fret | Eb, 1st inversion | Eb | all fretted |
| 8655x8 | 5th fret | C, root position | C | all fretted |
| 8-10-10-8-8-8 | 8th fret | C, root position | C | barred |
| x-x-10-8-8-8 | 8th fret | C, root position | C | barred |
| x-x-10-12-13-11 | 10th fret | C, root position | Eb | all fretted |
| x-x-13-12-13-11 | 11th fret | Eb, 1st inversion | Eb | all fretted |
| x-15-13-12-13-x | 12th fret | C, root position | C | all fretted |
How to use Cm
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Cm 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 Cm 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 Cm
Every note of Cm is in C minor pentatonic, C blues, C dorian, C natural minor and C phrygian.
Chords near Cm
Change one note of Cm and you have C (the minor third becomes a major third), Cdim (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Csus2 (the minor third becomes a ninth), Csus4 (the minor third becomes a fourth), Cm6 (add the sixth) or Cm7 (add the flat seventh).
Cm is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Cm’s sound and use this page follows Edward Aldwell & Carl Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading (Schirmer / Cengage, 4th ed., 2011). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.