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F minor chord

The three notes, the three ways to stack them and which fingers to use.

The short answer

The notes of the F minor chord are F, A flat and C.

On the keys

Keyboard with F, A flat and C markedFCA♭

Yellow is the root, the note the chord is named after.

On the staff

Treble and bass staves showing the F minor chord in root position: F, A flat and C

The F minor chord in root position. The treble clef is the right hand; the bass clef is the same chord an octave lower for the left.

Inversions

An inversion keeps the same three notes and changes which one is lowest. The F minor chord has a root position and two inversions, and all three still sound as F minor.

  1. Root positionF A♭ Cright hand 1 3 5, left hand 5 3 1
  2. First inversionA♭ C Fright hand 1 2 5, left hand 5 3 1
  3. Second inversionC F A♭right hand 1 3 5, left hand 5 2 1

Keep going

F minor scale

The scale this chord is built on: F, G, A flat, B flat, C, D flat and E flat.

A flat major chord

The relative major shares the same key signature as F minor.

F major chord

Same root, one note different: the third moves a semitone up.

Questions

How do you build an F minor chord?

Start on F, add the minor third (three semitones) above it, which is A flat, then the perfect fifth above the root (seven semitones), which is C.

How many inversions does an F minor chord have?

Two: first inversion puts A flat at the bottom and second inversion puts C at the bottom. With root position that makes three ways to play the same chord.

Practise F minor and the chords around it in PlayPiano, a piano practice app for iPhone and iPad.

Play it in the app