C♯m

C♯1E♭3G♯5

The major triad with its third lowered by a half step.

Written the other way round it is D♭m — the same twelve keys on a piano, a different piece of notation.

on guitar on piano the scale

Every fingering that fits a hand

Fig. 2

6404

easy · no 5

Fig. 3

x104

easy · no 5

Fig. 4

640x

easy · no 5

Fig. 5

6407

easy · no 5

Fig. 6

6444

moderate

What is true of it

C♯m is C♯, E and G♯ — 1, b3 and 5 counted from C♯.

On an instrument that cannot reach all 3, the 5 goes first, in that order.

The easiest of the 5 fingerings below is 6404: 3 fingers, held at the 4th fret.

None of them uses an open string, so this chord moves up the neck unchanged — the same shape 1 fret higher is the chord a semitone above.

It leaves out the 5. 4 strings cannot carry 3 notes, and the 5 is the one this chord can lose without changing what it is.

Where its notes are on the neck

Fig. 7 — first 12 frets

The brass dots are C♯, the root. Everything else is a chord tone with its degree printed in it.

With a different note underneath

first inversion

C♯m/E

x404

second inversion

C♯m/G♯

110x

An inversion is the same chord with a different note lowest. The name changes to a slash name because the bass is what a listener hears as the foundation.

C♯ in other shapes

C♯major C♯dimdiminished C♯augaugmented C♯5power chord C♯sus2suspended second C♯sus4suspended fourth

Cm Dm D♯m E♭m Em Fm F♯m G♭m all 374