Fm piano chord, F minor notes and fingering.

The Fm piano chord is F minor: the notes F, Ab and C played together. It is a root (F), a minor third (Ab, three semitones above the root) and a perfect fifth (C, seven semitones above). Chord charts write it as Fm or Fmin.

How to play Fm on piano

1. Find F on the keyboard. F is the white key just left of the group of three black keys, next to E with no black key between them.
2. With your right hand, put finger 1 on F, finger 3 on Ab and finger 5 on C. Finger 1 is the thumb.
3. Press all three keys together. In root position they run from F4 to C5, a reach of 7 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 F3 to C4, one octave lower: F with finger 5, Ab with finger 3, C with finger 1.
5. The cards under the keyboard hold the three positions, with F, Ab and C at the bottom in turn. Play and Arpeggio on a card play that position.
6. Open Note names. As written the keys read F, Ab and C. Sharps shows F, G# and C, and Flats shows F, Ab and C. This chord is written with flats, so As written and Flats match.

How Fm is built

Counted from the root, the formula is 0, 3, 7. Stacked on each other the gaps are 3 + 4: a minor third (F to Ab) with a major third (Ab to C) on top. A minor triad is a major triad with the third moved down one semitone. F major and F minor share F and C, and only the middle note differs: A against Ab.

Worked example: the pitch of F4. On a piano tuned to A4 = 440 Hz, a note 4 semitones below A4 has the frequency 440 × 2^(-4/12), which is about 349.23 Hz. Ab4 is 1 semitones below A4, so 440 × 2^(-1/12) gives about 415.30 Hz.

What the keys look like under your hand

F has no black key on its left, because E and F are only a semitone apart, and F# is the black key on its right. One of the three notes is a black key (Ab) and two are white keys (F and C). Finger 3 presses Ab, a black key between G and A. The middle fingers are the longest, so they reach black keys most easily.

Fm inversions and fingering

Fm has three positions. In root position F is at the bottom. In the first inversion, Ab is at the bottom and the chord is written Fm/Ab. In the second inversion, C is at the bottom and the chord is written Fm/C. The tightest reach, 7 semitones from the lowest key to the highest, is the root position. The widest, at 9, is the first inversion.

The keys that hold Fm

Fm 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 Eb major, with 3 flats, where it is chord ii.

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

• Eb major: ii-V-I, which is Fm, Bb, Eb, the ii-V-I, the standard jazz resolution.
• C minor: i-iv-v-i, which is Cm, Fm, Gm, Cm, the minor-key cadence.
• Ab major: I-V-vi-IV, which is Ab, Eb, Fm, Db, the four-chord loop heard in a great deal of pop.

Here is a worked example in Eb major. The chord before Fm in the first progression above is Eb (Eb, G and Bb). From Eb in root position, the closest way to reach Fm is its root position (F, Ab and C, lowest note first): no note stays in place, and the notes move 5 semitones in total, counting each note against the note in the same place from the bottom.

What Fm sounds like

Minor chords sound darker and more serious than major ones, and they carry the mood of many songs. They are not only for sad music, though: in a major key the ii, iii and vi chords are all minor, so a bright song uses them too.

Fm is the ii chord in Eb major, the iv chord in C minor and the vi chord in Ab major.

A common mistake with Fm

A common mistake is pressing A instead of Ab, one semitone higher than the third of Fm. That turns the chord into F major (F, A and C). If your Fm sounds too bright, check the middle finger first.

Chords to learn next

Chords close to Fm: F major (same root, with a major third; shares F and C); Fm7 (adds a minor seventh; contains all its notes); Fdim (lowers the fifth; shares F and Ab); Ab major (its relative major; shares Ab and C).

Once Fm feels easy, play it and then F major to hear what one note changes. 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.