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C minor chord on piano

Find the C minor notes, inspect their piano positions, and compare inversions with an audible reference.

Interactive piano keyboardSelected notes: C4 · E♭4 · G4. Gold marks the root when one is known.C4D4E4F4G4A4B4C5C♯4E♭4F♯4G♯4A♯4
Root noteSelected tone

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C Minor

C4 · E♭4 · G4

Notes and intervals

DegreeNotesSemitones
1C40
♭3E♭43
5G47

The notes and their roles

C minor contains C, E♭ and G. From the root, the semitone offsets are 0, 3, 7. The degree formula 1, ♭3, 5 describes each member relative to the root, not its order in a particular voicing.

NoteRoleSemitones above root
CRoot0
E♭Minor third3
GPerfect fifth7

Read this shape accurately

E-flat is the minor third above C. D-sharp reaches the same piano key in equal temperament, but E-flat shows the required C–E–G letter structure.

Change only the third

Hold C and G steady. Raise E♭ by one semitone to E and the quality changes to major. The root and perfect fifth do not change. This isolates the interval that distinguishes the two triads.

Choose a bass note

The root-position octave example is C4 · E♭4 · G4. Inversions put a different member in the bass while retaining C as the root. The table gives pitch-class order; move the leading notes up an octave as needed to keep each example ascending.

PositionNotes from the bassBass
Root positionC · E♭ · GC
First inversionE♭ · G · CE♭
Second inversionG · C · E♭G

A short listening check

Play C minor together, then as separate notes. Name the minor third before looking at the display. Repeat in first inversion and check that E♭ is the bass while C remains the root.

  1. Choose the displayed root and quality in the chord explorer.
  2. Compare root position with one inversion at the same tempo.
  3. Save both examples in a named practice collection, or export a reference with note names.

Sources and methods