F minor: scale and chords

The F minor chord (Fm) on guitar and piano

F A♭ C

The F minor chord is F, A♭ and C: the keynote, a minor third above it (three semitones) and the fifth (four more). It's the chord a song in F minor comes home to, the i in the table below.

Guitar: 1 3 3 1 1 1 (low E to high E, x = not played). A barre: the index finger flat across the 1st fret, ring and little finger on the 3rd fret of the A and D strings. It's the open Em shape moved up one fret.

Easier shapes: x x 3 1 1 1, the top four strings, the index finger across only three. Smallest: x x x 1 1 1, one finger across the top three strings at the 1st fret (A♭ C F). With a capo on the 1st fret, the open Em, Am, C and D shapes sound as Fm, B♭m, D♭ and E♭.

Ukulele: 1 0 1 3 (G C E A).

Piano: F (white), A♭ (black) and C (white). Right hand fingers 1 3 5, left hand 5 3 1. First inversion A♭ C F, second inversion C F A♭.

Play Fm

F blues scale

The F minor scale: natural, harmonic and melodic

F G A♭ B♭ C D♭ E♭

Key signature: four flats, written B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭, those of A♭ major. Treble clef, left to right: middle line, top space, second space, fourth line. Bass clef: second line, third space, bottom space, middle line. On a piano four of the seven notes are black keys (A♭ B♭ D♭ E♭). Whole and half steps: W H W W H W W.

F harmonic minor: F G A♭ B♭ C D♭ E. The raised seventh, E natural, sits a semitone under F and leaves a gap of three semitones between D♭ and E, the augmented second that gives the scale its sound. It turns the chord on the fifth into C major (C E G) or C7 (C E G B♭), the chord that pulls back to Fm, and the chord on the seventh into E° (E G B♭).

F melodic minor: F G A♭ B♭ C D E on the way up, then down as natural minor: F E♭ D♭ C B♭ A♭ G F. Jazz players keep D and E in both directions.

Play harmonic minor Play melodic minor

In Hz, from the keynote in octave 4: F4 349.2 · G4 392.0 · A♭4 415.3 · B♭4 466.2 · C5 523.3 · D♭5 554.4 · E♭5 622.3

Play the scale

The chords in F minor

Tap a chord to hear it.

On guitar: Fm 1 3 3 1 1 1 · G° 3 4 5 3 x x · A♭ 4 6 6 5 4 4 · B♭m x 1 3 3 2 1 · Cm x 3 5 5 4 3 · D♭ x 4 6 6 6 4 · E♭ x 6 8 8 8 6. From harmonic minor, the major V: C x 3 2 0 1 0 or C7 x 3 5 3 5 3.

The loop plays i–VI–III–VII: Fm D♭ A♭ E♭.

Is F minor just F?

No. A chord written "F" is F major: F A C. F minor, written Fm, lowers the A to A♭. The keys are further apart than the chords: F major has one flat (B♭), F minor four. F major's relative minor is D minor, one flat too. And F♯ minor, often typed "f minor sharp", is another key again, a semitone up with three sharps: F♯ minor.

F minor's relative major: A flat major, and how to tell them apart

The two share all seven notes and the four flats, so the key signature can't tell them apart, and a loop like Fm D♭ A♭ E♭ can sound like either. Three things decide it. Where the music stops: the last chord and the bass note under it. The leading tone: E natural, in a C or C7 chord or in the melody, belongs to F minor and never to A♭ major. And the melody's resting notes: F and C point to F minor, A♭ and E♭ to A♭ major. Songs and streaming playlists label the same track either way for this reason.

On paper F minor could also be called E♯ minor, but that needs eight sharps, one of them a double sharp, so it's only ever written as F minor.

Progressions in F minor

• i–VI–III–VII Fm D♭ A♭ E♭: the loop above, all from natural minor.
• i–iv–V7 Fm B♭m C7: the E natural in C7 resolves up to F.
• i–VI–VII Fm D♭ E♭: a rising minor-key riff of rock and film music.
• i–iv–v Fm B♭m Cm: softer, no leading tone. Play it next to Fm B♭m C7 Fm to hear what E natural does.

The F minor scale on piano and guitar

Piano: right hand 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4, the thumb on F and C; left hand 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1, the third finger crossing over to D♭. These are F major's fingers, and they don't change for harmonic or melodic minor.

Guitar, natural minor in the first position, two octaves from F on the 1st fret of the low E string:

For F harmonic minor, each E♭ moves a fret up to E: the 1st fret of the D string becomes the 2nd, the 4th fret of the B string the 5th (or the open high E).

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.

What F minor feels like

Christian Schubart, writing in the 1780s, heard "deep depression, funereal lament" in it; Glenn Gould said that if he could be a key he would be F minor, "halfway between complex and stable". Schubart wrote in a time of unequal tunings, when each key really did have slightly different intervals; Gould's was a pianist's taste. On a piano tuned in equal temperament every minor key has the same intervals; what F minor has of its own is register. On a guitar the keynote is the lowest F there is, on the 1st fret of the low E string; as a sub it sits at F1, 43.7 Hz.

Why is F minor so popular?

No reliable count ranks it among the most used keys. What it offers is practical: on piano it takes F major's fingering, both thumbs on white keys (F and C); on guitar the Fm barre sits at the 1st fret, its root the lowest F the instrument has; and it shares every note with A♭ major, so a song can move between the two without a new key signature.

What is the forbidden key in music?

No key is forbidden; the "devil's interval" people mean is the tritone, explained on the G minor page. In F minor it sits between G and D♭ and inside C7 (E against B♭).

Music in F minor

Beethoven's "Appassionata" Sonata Op. 57, "Winter" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Chopin's Ballade No. 4 and Piano Concerto No. 2, Schubert's Fantasia D 940 for piano four hands, Haydn's Symphony No. 49 ("La Passione") and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. In pop and rock: Aerosmith's "Dream On" (1973), the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" (1977), Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1991) and Adele's "Hello" (2015).

Keys that mix with F minor

On the Camelot wheel F minor is 4A (Open Key 9m). Tracks in these keys mix without a clash:

• 4B A♭ major relative major, the same seven notes
• 3A B♭ minor one step down
• 5A C minor one step up
• 6A G minor two steps up, the energy boost

Same keynote, the other mode: F major (7B), three notes apart.

Where F minor sits

Choir parts (soprano C4–G5, alto G3–D5, tenor C3–G4, bass F2–D4, where two part-writing guides agree): F4–F5 fits the soprano part; F3–F4 fits the tenor part; F2–F3 fits the bass part; no whole F-to-F octave fits the alto part. Find your own range.

As a sub or an 808, the keynote is F1 at 43.7 Hz, or F2 at 87.3 Hz an octave up. Tune an 808 to F.

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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