The F#m chord
Think of the F#m as the workhorse of melancholy. The chord is built from F# - A - C#, a textbook minor triad. It does its strongest work in minor-key folk and modern pop, where it tends to darken a major progression briefly. The F#m earns its place in the progression. Take On Me opens on F#m. Modern alt-rock has lived in this chord ever since. Voicings on both instruments, theory in plain language, progressions in multiple keys and a handful of real song references are all laid out below.
Hear the F#m in the chord builder →Voicings for F#m
Common ways to grip the F#m 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 F#m across the neck. Pick the shape closest to where your hand already sits.
Guitar , triad shapes
Three-note triad shapes on each string set, shown moving up the neck. Light textures for arpeggios, pop layering and chord-melody work.
Piano voicings
Root position and inversions. The bass note matters: each inversion changes how the chord sits under a melody.
The theory behind F#m
Progressions that use F#m
Short progressions that put the F#m to work. Each one is shown in a different key so you can pick the one that suits your singer.
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.
→ Build this in the chord builderThe 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.
→ Build this in the chord builderThe 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.
→ Build this in the chord builderHeroic 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.
→ Build this in the chord builderSongs that feature F#m
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.
- Take On Me by a-ha. F#m as the home chord of the iconic verse.
- Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. F#m voicing inside the verse.
- Numb by Linkin Park. F#m as the song's centre of gravity.
Related chords
Chords a step away from the F#m in the songwriting circle, the natural neighbours when you want a substitution.
Keys where F#m lives
The keys where this chord turns up diatonically. Open any key page for the full set of progressions that lean on it.
Related references
Other ways to put the F#m to work across the reference library.
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 F#m 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 F#m. For interactive playback, voice-leading hints and substitution suggestions, open the chord builder above.