C# Minor guitar chord
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C#m — 1st inversion
C#m is C#, E 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.
Tonic — minor chords rest as readily as major ones.
C#m notes and formula
| C# | E | G# |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 |
Also written C#min, C#- or C# minor. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#m
C#m in 1st inversion puts E in the bass instead of C#, the 3rd of the chord. The notes are the same; what changes is what the bass line does, which is most of why you would reach for it — it lets the lowest voice move by step where the root would have jumped.
2 of C#m’s 8 common shapes do this:x7665xx-x-14-13-14-12
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x4212x, 1st fret, C#, root position, top note C#, all fretted
- x46654, 4th fret, C#, root position, top note G#, all fretted
- x7665x, 5th fret, E, 1st inversion, top note E, all fretted
- 9766x9, 6th fret, C#, root position, top note C#, all fretted
- 9-11-11-9-9-9, 9th fret, C#, root position, top note C#, barred
- x-x-11-9-9-9, 9th fret, C#, root position, top note C#, barred
- x-x-11-13-14-12, 11th fret, C#, root position, top note E, all fretted
- x-x-14-13-14-12, 12th fret, E, 1st inversion, top note E, all fretted
How to use C#m
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#m is D#m7♭5 to G#7♭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 C#m belongs to C# minor (the i), E major (the vi), F# minor (the v), Ab minor (the iv), A major (the iii) and B major (the ii).
What to play over C#m
Every note of C#m is in C# minor pentatonic, C# blues, C# dorian, C# natural minor and C# phrygian.
Chords near C#m
Change one note of C#m and you have C# (the minor third becomes the major third), C#dim (the fifth becomes the flat fifth), C#sus2 (the minor third becomes the second), C#sus4 (the minor third becomes the fourth), C#m6 (add the sixth) or C#m7 (add the flat seventh).
C#m 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.