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F minor chord on piano

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

Interactive piano keyboardSelected notes: F4 · A♭4 · C5. Gold marks the root when one is known.C4D4E4F4G4A4B4C5C♯4D♯4F♯4A♭4A♯4
Root noteSelected tone

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C Minor

C4 · E♭4 · G4

Notes and intervals

DegreeNotesSemitones
1F40
♭3A♭43
5C57

The notes and their roles

F minor contains F, A♭ and C. 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
FRoot0
A♭Minor third3
CPerfect fifth7

Read this shape accurately

A-flat is the third in F minor. The minor quality comes from F to A-flat, not from the number of black keys in the chord.

Change only the third

Hold F and C steady. Raise A♭ by one semitone to A 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 F4 · A♭4 · C5. Inversions put a different member in the bass while retaining F 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 positionF · A♭ · CF
First inversionA♭ · C · FA♭
Second inversionC · F · A♭C

A short listening check

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