Cm7 piano chord, C minor 7th notes and fingering.

The Cm7 piano chord is C minor 7th: C, Eb, G and Bb. It is the C minor triad (C, Eb, G) with a minor seventh (Bb) added on top, ten semitones above the root. Chord charts write it as Cm7 or Cmin7.

How to play Cm7 on piano

1. Find C on the keyboard. C is the white key just left of the pair of black keys.
2. With your right hand, put finger 1 on C, finger 2 on Eb, finger 3 on G and finger 5 on Bb. Finger 1 is the thumb.
3. Press all four keys together. In root position they run from C4 to Bb4, a reach of 10 semitones. Play chord sounds them together and Arpeggio sounds them one by one, from the bottom up.
4. Click Left hand to see the left hand. It plays C3 to Bb3, one octave lower: C with finger 5, Eb with finger 3, G with finger 2, Bb with finger 1.
5. The cards under the keyboard hold the four positions, with C, Eb, G and Bb at the bottom in turn. Play and Arpeggio on a card play that position.
6. Open Note names. As written the keys read C, Eb, G and Bb. Sharps shows C, D#, G and A#, and Flats shows C, Eb, G and Bb. This chord is written with flats, so As written and Flats match.

How Cm7 is built

Counted from the root, the formula is 0, 3, 7, 10. Stacked on each other the gaps are 3 + 4 + 3: a minor third, a major third and another minor third. Leave out the root and the top three notes, Eb, G and Bb, make a major triad: Eb major. That is why Cm7 and Ebmaj7 look so alike on the keyboard.

Worked example: the pitch of C4. On a piano tuned to A4 = 440 Hz, a note 9 semitones below A4 has the frequency 440 × 2^(-9/12), which is about 261.63 Hz. Eb4 is 6 semitones below A4, so 440 × 2^(-6/12) gives about 311.13 Hz.

What the keys look like under your hand

The black key nearest C is C# on its right. On its left there is none, because B and C are only a semitone apart. Two of the four notes are black keys (Eb and Bb) and two are white keys (C and G). Your little finger plays Bb, a black key with A and B beside it. The little finger is short, so let the hand lean a little toward its edge and aim for the middle of the key. Finger 2 presses Eb, a black key between D and E. The middle fingers are the longest, so they reach black keys most easily.

Cm7 inversions and fingering

Cm7 has four positions. In root position C is at the bottom. In the first inversion, Eb is at the bottom and the chord is written Cm7/Eb. In the second inversion, G is at the bottom and the chord is written Cm7/G. In the third inversion, Bb is at the bottom and the chord is written Cm7/Bb. The tightest reach, 8 semitones from the lowest key to the highest, is the second inversion. The widest, at 10, is the root position.

The keys that hold Cm7

Cm7 fits six of the major and natural minor keys that have a standard key signature, which means every note of it comes from that key's scale. The simplest is Bb major, with 2 flats, where it is chord ii7.

Progressions that use Cm7, with the chord numbers and the chords in that key:

• Bb major: ii7-V7-Imaj7, which is Cm7, F7, Bbmaj7, the ii-V-I, the standard jazz resolution.
• G minor: i7-iv7-v7-i7, which is Gm7, Cm7, Dm7, Gm7, the minor-key cadence.
• Eb major: Imaj7-V7-vi7-IVmaj7, which is Ebmaj7, Bb7, Cm7, Abmaj7, the four-chord loop heard in a great deal of pop.

Here is a worked example in Bb major. The chord before Cm7 in the first progression above is Bbmaj7 (Bb, D, F and A). From Bbmaj7 in root position, the closest way to reach Cm7 is its root position (C, Eb, G and Bb, lowest note first): no note stays in place, and the notes move 6 semitones in total, counting each note against the note in the same place from the bottom.

The same four keys can be named a second way. Cm7 holds the same notes as Eb6 (Eb, G, Bb and C). The name you read depends on which note is lowest: with C at the bottom it is Cm7, with Eb at the bottom it is Eb6.

What Cm7 sounds like

Minor 7th chords are mellow. The added seventh softens the plain minor triad, so the chord feels smoother and less heavy. You hear them in jazz, soul, R and B and pop, and as the ii chord of a ii-V-I.

Cm7 is the ii7 chord in Bb major, the iv7 chord in G minor and the vi7 chord in Eb major.

A common mistake with Cm7

A common mistake is pressing E instead of Eb, one semitone higher than the third of Cm7. That gives C7 (C, E, G and Bb), a dominant 7th. If the chord sounds brighter and more tense than you expected, the third is the note to check.

Chords to learn next

Chords close to Cm7: C minor (the same chord without the seventh; shares C, Eb and G); C7 (a major third instead; shares C, G and Bb); Ebmaj7 (shares three notes with it); Eb major (the major triad on top of it; shares Eb, G and Bb).

Once Cm7 feels easy, play it and then F7 to hear a ii-V move. For chords beyond these six types, and for guitar and ukulele shapes, use the chord finder. To play along with your computer keys, open the virtual piano. The piano chords page lists all 72 chords.