C sharp minor: scale and chords

The C sharp minor scale

C♯ D♯ E F♯ G♯ A B

Key signature: four sharps, written F♯ C♯ G♯ D♯. On the treble staff: the top line, the third space, the space above the staff and the fourth line. On the bass clef: the fourth line, the second space, the top space and the middle line. On a piano four of the seven notes are black keys (C♯ D♯ F♯ G♯). Whole and half steps: W H W W H W W. Typed "c minor sharp", this is the key people mean; C minor is a semitone lower, with three flats.

Harmonic minor: C♯ D♯ E F♯ G♯ A B♯. B♯ is the white key C, named B♯ because the scale needs a B. It makes the chord on the fifth G♯ major (G♯ B♯ D♯), or G♯7 with F♯, the chord that pulls hardest back to C♯m. The chord on the seventh becomes B♯° (B♯ D♯ F♯). Melodic minor: C♯ D♯ E F♯ G♯ A♯ B♯ going up, then down as natural minor: C♯ B A G♯ F♯ E D♯ C♯.

Play harmonic minor Play melodic minor

In Hz, from the keynote in octave 4: C♯4 277.2 · D♯4 311.1 · E4 329.6 · F♯4 370.0 · G♯4 415.3 · A4 440.0 · B4 493.9

Play the scale

The C sharp minor chord (C♯m) on guitar and piano

C♯ E G♯

The C sharp minor chord is C♯, E and G♯: the keynote, a minor third above it (three semitones) and the fifth (four more). It's the chord a song in this key comes home to, the i in the table below.

Guitar: x 4 6 6 5 4 (low E to high E, x = not played). A barre: the index finger flat across the 4th fret from the A string, D and G at the 6th fret, B at the 5th; low E stays silent. It's the open Am shape moved up 4 frets.

Easier shapes: x x x 6 5 4, the top three strings only. Easiest of all, near the nut: x x 2 1 2 0, E on the D string, G♯ on G, C♯ on B and the open high E. The open Em shape fits as a barre at the 9th fret: 9 11 11 9 9 9. With a capo on the 4th fret, the open Am, Dm, F and G shapes sound as C♯m, F♯m, A and B.

Ukulele: 1 1 0 4 (G C E A).

Piano: C♯ (black), E (white) and G♯ (black). Right hand fingers 1 3 5, left hand 5 3 1. First inversion E G♯ C♯, second inversion G♯ C♯ E: the shape of the Moonlight Sonata's opening, which rocks through G♯ C♯ E over a low C♯.

Play C♯m

Chords in C sharp minor

Tap a chord to hear it.

On guitar: C♯m x 4 6 6 5 4 · D♯° x 6 7 8 7 x · E 0 2 2 1 0 0 · F♯m 2 4 4 2 2 2 · G♯m 4 6 6 4 4 4 · A x 0 2 2 2 0 · B x 2 4 4 4 2. Two of them, E and A, are open chords. From harmonic minor, the major V: G♯ 4 6 6 5 4 4 or G♯7 4 6 4 5 4 4.

The loop plays i–VI–III–VII: C♯m A E B.

Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C sharp minor, Chopin's Nocturne No. 20 and the Moonlight Sonata

The key's three best-known pieces are all for piano. Rachmaninoff wrote his Prelude in C♯ minor, Op. 3 No. 2, the second of his five Morceaux de fantaisie, in 1892, at 19, and first played it in Moscow that autumn; it's often called "The Bells of Moscow". It opens with three loud notes in the bass, A, G♯ and C♯, and became an encore he played so often he grew tired of it.

Chopin's Nocturne No. 20 in C sharp minor, Op. posth. (Lento con gran espressione), was written in 1830 for his sister Ludwika, as an exercise before she studied his Second Piano Concerto, and published only in 1875, long after his death, which is why it's listed as posthumous. It opens the 2002 film The Pianist, played by Szpilman at the Warsaw radio as the bombs fall. Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu Op. 66 and Nocturne Op. 27 No. 1 are in C♯ minor too, as are the funeral march that opens Mahler's Symphony No. 5 and Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14 Op. 131.

Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 Op. 27 No. 2 (1801) got the name "Moonlight" only after his death, from the critic Ludwig Rellstab. The pianist Ernst Pauer called C♯ minor, in 1876, "undoubtedly the most intensely melancholy key". Only two 18th-century symphonies in it are known, one by Joseph Martin Kraus, who later rewrote his in C minor; after the Moonlight Sonata it became a piano key.

Is C sharp minor the same as E major?

Same seven notes, same four sharps, a different home. E major is the relative major: it starts on C♯ minor's third note, three semitones up. A trick for any minor scale: find the major key three semitones above it and play that key's notes from its sixth degree. Or start from the parallel major and lower the third, sixth and seventh: C♯ major's E♯, A♯ and B♯ become E, A and B.

C♯ major, the parallel major, needs seven sharps and is usually written as D♭ major, five flats. C♯ minor's own flat spelling, D♭ minor, would need eight flats with a double flat, so it isn't used: Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu is in C♯ minor with its middle section in D♭ major, the parallel major in flats.

Chords and progressions in C♯ minor

• i–VI–III–VII C♯m A E B: the loop above.
• i–iv–VI–VII C♯m F♯m A B: the loop under Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" (2017).
• i–iv–V C♯m F♯m G♯: the major V from harmonic minor.
• i–VI–VII–i C♯m A B C♯m: two major chords climbing back to the minor home.

What plays

Drums, an organ bass and a pluck, the Brumm app's own sounds, four bars at 123 BPM, one chord per bar. The arrows move bass and chords a semitone; the drums stay.

The C sharp minor scale on piano and guitar

Piano, natural minor: right hand 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3, the thumb on E and A; left hand 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 3, the thumb on E and B.

Guitar, from C♯ on the 4th fret of the A string, frets 4 to 7:

For harmonic minor, every B moves up a fret to B♯: the 5th fret of the G string, the 8th of the low and high E.

Keys that mix with C♯ minor

On the Camelot wheel C♯ minor is 12A (Open Key 5m). Tracks in these keys mix without a clash:

• 12B E major relative major, the same seven notes
• 11A F♯ minor one step down
• 1A G♯ minor one step up
• 2A E♭ minor two steps up, the energy boost

Same keynote, the other mode: D♭ major (3B), three notes apart.

Where C♯ minor sits

Choir parts (soprano C4–G5, alto G3–D5, tenor C3–G4, bass F2–D4, where two part-writing guides agree): C♯4–C♯5 fits the soprano and alto parts; C♯3–C♯4 fits the tenor and bass parts. Find your own range.

As a sub or an 808, the keynote is C♯1 at 34.6 Hz, or C♯2 at 69.3 Hz an octave up. Tune an 808 to C♯.

Then hum over it

The hum button opens Brumm with a short line in the key over a beat. Hum yours and it becomes an instrument. No account, no upload.

Sources

Scales and chords: Open Music Theory, musictheory.net. Camelot, Open Key: Mixed In Key, Mixgraph. Open strings: Wikipedia. Choir parts: Open Music Theory, Geneseo. Guitar shapes: Wikipedia, Barre chord. Hz: A4 = 440 Hz, ISO 16.

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