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The Cm chord

Start with the recipe. The notes are C - D# - G, a minor triad, otherwise known as the Cm. The chord feels a moody but un-fussy minor, which is why writers chasing a quiet chorus keep landing on it. The first chord in Adele's Hello and a thousand other ballads. You will find it inside sad pop, indie and ballads. The rest of this page lays out the common voicings, the interval theory, the progressions where the chord fits, and the records that lean on it for structural work.

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Voicings for Cm

Common ways to grip the Cm on guitar and piano. Guitar diagrams read low E to high E left-to-right; an × means muted, an open circle above the nut means an open string. Filled dots are fretted notes.

Guitar , full chord shapes

CAGED-derived voicings for Cm across the neck. Pick the shape closest to where your hand already sits.

Guitar: Em shape at fr.8

Notes: C - D# - G (chord tones)

Guitar: Am shape at fr.3

Notes: C - D# - G (chord tones)

Guitar: Dm shape at fr.10

Notes: C - D# - G (chord tones)

Guitar: top-4 voicing

Notes: C - D# - G (chord tones)

Guitar: high top-4 voicing

Notes: C - D# - G (chord tones)

Guitar , triad shapes

Three-note voicings on three adjacent strings. Light textures for arpeggios, pop layering and chord-melody work.

Triad: top-string triad

Notes: 3-note voicing on adjacent strings

Triad: middle-string triad

Notes: 3-note voicing on adjacent strings

Triad: bass-side triad

Notes: 3-note voicing on adjacent strings

Piano voicings

Root position and inversions. The bass note matters: each inversion changes how the chord sits under a melody.

Piano: root position

Notes: C - D# - G. Root C at the bottom. The classic stacked-thirds spelling of a minor triad.

Piano: first inversion

Notes: D# - G - C. D# at the bottom. Common in chord-melody, walking bass lines and gentler voicings.

Piano: second inversion

Notes: G - C - D#. G at the bottom. A floating, suspended feel often used in hymns and ballads.

The theory behind Cm

Spell out the Cm and you get C - D# - G. The intervals from the root are root, minor third, perfect fifth, which is the recipe for a minor triad. In Bb major the chord plays the role of Supertonic (ii); in Eb major it shows up as Submediant (vi). Its preferred next move is move to its relative major or step down to the bVII, which is what makes it useful in any minor-key song.

Progressions that use Cm

Short progressions that put the Cm to work. Each one is shown in a different key so you can pick the one that suits your singer.

ii→V→I key of Bb major

Cm - F - Bb

The cornerstone of every jazz standard. ii sets up the dominant, V resolves home with full gravity. Add a seventh on each chord for the canonical sound.

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I→V→vi→IV key of Eb major

Eb - Bb - Cm - Ab

The four-chord engine behind a thousand pop hits. The lift from I to V opens the chorus, vi pulls down into feeling, IV walks back toward home.

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i→iv→V→i key of G minor

Gm - Cm - Dm - Gm

The classical pull. The V is borrowed from harmonic minor (a major V instead of v), creating a sharper push back to the tonic. Used in flamenco, classical and metal alike.

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i→VI→III→VII key of C minor

Cm - Ab - Eb - Bb

Heroic minor four-chord. The descent from i to VI to III gives the verse weight, VII slingshots back to the tonic. The Andalusian cousin of the pop axis.

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Songs that feature Cm

Real records where this chord does structural work. No lyrics quoted, just the title and artist so you can pull up a copy and hear it in context.

Hello by Adele. Cm as the home chord of the verse.
Mad World by Tears for Fears / Gary Jules. Cm voicings throughout.
Layla (Unplugged) by Eric Clapton. Cm at the centre of the unplugged arrangement.

Related chords

Chords a step away from the Cm in the songwriting circle, the natural neighbours when you want a substitution.

ParallelC DomC7 Maj7Cmaj7 m7Cm7 NeighbourG NeighbourGm NeighbourG7 NeighbourF

Keys where Cm lives

The keys where this chord turns up diatonically. Open any key page for the full set of progressions that lean on it.

Bb major Eb major Ab major G minor

More songwriting tools

Got the chord but still wrestling with the lyric? Find the right rhyme in RhymeForge, or break a writer's block with the unexpected word-pair generator in CollisionLab. Need to map a full progression? The chord builder on the home page is where the Cm fits into context. All free, no signup.

About the chord builder

The Undercover Zest chord progression builder is a free interactive tool that maps every diatonic and borrowed chord in every key. Click a Roman numeral to hear it, drag chords into a progression, then audition voicings, inversions and tensions until the song clicks.

This page is a static reference for the Cm. For interactive playback, voice-leading hints and substitution suggestions, open the chord builder above.