Zarlino

C natural minor

Major with three notes lowered.

Take C major, lower the third, sixth and seventh, and you have it: C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭. Every other minor scale on this site starts here and changes one thing.

It shares all seven notes with E♭ major. Treat C as home instead and the mood turns dark.

How it sounds
Dark, but in no hurry. It’s sad more than tense. The flat third sets the mood, and since no note leans hard on home, it drifts and settles instead of resolving. It loops well for the same reason.
Where it lives
Rock, pop ballads, folk, metal, film scoring, and most minor-key songwriting outside classical music.

On the neck

Position
Show
Position 1, frets 0 to 4
  • High E string: F at fret 1, G at fret 3, A♭ at fret 4
  • B string: C at fret 1, D at fret 3, E♭ at fret 4
  • G string: G at fret 0, A♭ at fret 1, B♭ at fret 3
  • D string: D at fret 0, E♭ at fret 1, F at fret 3
  • A string: B♭ at fret 1, C at fret 3
  • Low E string: F at fret 1, G at fret 3, A♭ at fret 4

The notes

In order, with the frets between them: C2D1E♭2F2G1A♭2B♭2C

Two notes set the mood. E♭, one fret lower than in C major, makes it minor. B♭ sits two frets under C instead of one, so nothing pulls hard toward home, and that’s where natural minor gets its calm.

What each interval does

Home. Every other note is measured from it. B♭ sits two frets below.

C

Perfect unison

Two frets up from C: whole step.

D

Major second

One fret up from D: half step.

E♭

Minor third

Two frets up from E♭: whole step.

F

Perfect fourth

Two frets up from F: whole step.

G

Perfect fifth

One fret up from G: half step.

A♭

Minor sixth

Two frets up from A♭: whole step.

B♭

Minor seventh

Playing in C minor

  • Two open strings, not six.

    Only D and G belong to C minor. E, A and B all clash (E against E♭, A against A♭, B against B♭), so check before you let an open string ring. It’s the opposite of C major, and you’ll notice straight away.

  • Almost everything is a barre chord.

    Cm, Fm, Gm, E♭, A♭ and B♭ usually all need a barre. That’s the main reason C minor is rare in guitar music. The key itself is fine. It’s just heavy under the fingers.

  • The capo route.

    Capo on the 3rd fret, then play A minor shapes: Am becomes Cm, Dm becomes Fm, Em becomes Gm, F becomes A♭, G becomes B♭. The whole key turns into open chords, which makes this the easy way to play C minor behind a singer.

  • The heavy route.

    Rock and metal players get round the barres another way. Tune down to drop C and the low string becomes the root, so power chords sit under one finger.

  • Where you’ll meet it.

    Minor-key piano ballads, film scores, and anything written at a keyboard first. On guitar it mostly arrives through one of the two routes above.

The chords

Same method as always: take a note, skip one, take the next, skip again. What changes is the spacing. C to E♭ is three frets, so the home chord is minor. E♭ to G is four, so the III chord (E♭) comes out major. D–F–A♭ is three frets and then three more, which makes a diminished chord.

How chords are built from a scale

Degree i
Degree ii°
Degree III
Degree iv
Degree v
Degree VI
Degree VII

Lowercase is minor, uppercase is major, the circle is diminished: i, ii°, III, iv, v, VI, VII. This time the home chord is lowercase, which is the quickest way to spot a minor key on paper. In C natural minor, i–iv–v is Cm–Fm–Gm.

Chord pages: Cm, Ddim, E♭, Fm, Gm, A♭, B♭

Position
Show
Cm, Am form, frets 3 to 6
  • High E string: G at fret 3
  • B string: E♭ at fret 4
  • G string: C at fret 5
  • D string: G at fret 5
  • A string: C at fret 3
  • Low E string: not played

Cm chord: all voicings and theory

The three functions

Every chord still does one of three jobs. The difference in natural minor is how weak the last one is. In C natural minor, Cm and E♭ are home, Fm, Ddim and A♭ move away, and Gm and B♭ carry what tension there is.

  1. Tonic

    home

    • Cmi
    • E♭III

  2. Pre-dominant

    moving

    • Fmiv
    • Ddimii°rare
    • A♭VI

  3. Dominant

    tension

    • Gmv
    • B♭VII

resolves back to Cm

Cm is C–E♭–G and E♭ is E♭–G–B♭. They share two notes, so E♭ can stand in for home. A♭ is A♭–C–E♭, which puts it on the border, close to home and close to Fm.

The weak spot is the dominant. Neither Gm nor B♭ contains B natural, so no note sits one fret below C. There’s tension, but it’s mild, and getting home feels more like settling than clicking into place.

Progressions

Pop and rock

Rock in minor mostly skips the dominant. B♭ and A♭ do the work, stepping down and back up to Cm. The return runs on momentum, not tension.

Pop and rock progressions in C natural minor
NameNumeralsIn C
Minor axiscommoni–VI–III–VIICm – A♭ – E♭ – B♭the same four chords as the axis in E♭, started from its minor chord
Rock descentcommoni–VII–VI–VIICm – B♭ – A♭ – B♭
Aeolian risecommonVI–VII–iA♭ – B♭ – Cm
Minor three-chordi–iv–vCm – Fm – Gm

Folk and film

Folk and film scoring lean into the drift instead of fighting it. Chords go back and forth and come home without a strong cadence, and that’s what makes them sound old, open or unresolved.

Folk and film progressions in C natural minor
NameNumeralsIn C
Modal back-and-forthcommoni–VII–iCm – B♭ – Cm
Soft minor cadencei–v–iCm – Gm – Cm
Minor plagaliv–iFm – Cm
Circle descentrarei–iv–VII–III–VICm – Fm – B♭ – E♭ – A♭

Writing with this

Putting chords under a melody

One note, three moods.

Hold an E♭ in the melody and Cm, E♭ or A♭ can go under it without changing the tune. Cm sounds dark, E♭ bright, A♭ warm.

Two of those three are major chords. Natural minor has a lot more major colour in it than the name suggests.

The family

Relative majorE♭ Major