C Minor Scales & Arpeggio

H2: What notes are in the C natural minor scale?

The C natural minor has seven notes: C, D, E♭, F, G, A♭, and B♭. Want to learn how to play the C minor scale? Click the link to Learn the C Minor Scale on the Piano! 

H2: What notes are in the C harmonic minor scale?

The notes in the C harmonic minor scale are C, D, E♭, F, G, A♭, and B♮. In C harmonic minor, the B♭ is raised to a B♮. A harmonic minor scale uses all the same notes as the natural minor scale except for the seventh note, which is raised one half step. 

What chords can be built using the C minor scale?

There are seven chords available using the C minor scale. Each chord is built on one of the scale’s seven notes.  

i – C minor (C - E♭ - G)
ii° – D diminished (D - F - A♭)
III – E♭ major (E♭ - G - B♭) or E♭augmented (E♭- G - B♮) using C harmonic minor
iv – F minor (F - A♭ - C)
v – G minor (G - B♭- D) or G major (G - B♮ - D) using C harmonic minor
VI – A♭ major (A♭ - C - E♭)
VII – B♭ major (B♭ - D - F) or B diminished (B♮ - D - F) using C harmonic minor

Dive even deeper into the chords used in the key of C minor with Piano Chords in C minor. 

What notes are in C minor arpeggio?

The C minor arpeggio uses the notes C - E♭- G.  Learn all about minor chords in our article How to Play Minor Chords for Piano Learners. Our Ultimate Piano Chord Chart is an essential guide for all piano students and will show you how to play chords in C minor and all other keys! 

What is C minor good for?

C minor is a fantastic key signature for writing dramatic, serious, or deeply emotional music. You’ll hear it in Beethoven’s Symphony  No. 5, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and also in many popular songs like “Hotel California.”

Why is C minor so popular?

C minor is a popular key for many famous compositions! C minor is a beautiful key that can capture a wide range of emotions. C minor can feel exciting, nostalgic, dramatic, or even haunting. Want to master the C minor scale? Sign up for Hoffman Academy Premium today!

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we're going to learn how to play a two octave scale and arpeggio in C minor. Let's come to the piano to get started.
Now, you know by now that C major
is our major scale with zero sharps and flats. Now, can you tell me what minor key also has zero sharps and flats?
If you said A minor, you're correct. To find the relative minor, it's always just a skip of a third below.
So A natural minor also has zero sharps and flats just like C major.
Now today, we're going to be going up even further on the ladder of fourths.
Now we can use the minor scales just like the major scales to go up fourths and add flats. So if A minor has zero sharps and flats,
we can go up a fourth to D.
D minor has one flat.
Now if we go up another fourth from D, which would be where? Tell me a fourth above D.
If you said G, you're correct.
So G minor should have two flats. Remember, every time we go up a fourth we add a flat. So we have a B-flat and an E-flat now
in G natural minor.
Now, what if we want to go up another fourth? Where would that bring us? What's a fourth above G?
If you said C, you're correct, and I'm going to come down to this C,
and based on our law of the ladder of fourths how many flats should we now have in C minor?
If you said three, you're correct.
We're now up to three flats.
Now, let's take a look at our ladder of fourths,
and you can see if we're looking on the minor side we went up a fourth from A to D to G to C, and now that we're in C minor,
we have three flats: B-flat, E-flat, and A-flat.
Let's find those three flats on your piano. Can you play
just take any fingers and find an E-flat, an A-flat, and a B-flat.
Find that in a couple places on your piano. Maybe find three different places where you can play those three flats.
Kind of get used to where those are on your piano.
Now let's try to play the natural minor scale. We'll start with our right hand.
This uses the basic scale fingering that we've already learned, which is 1 2 3 1 2 3 4, and then it starts over.
1 2 3 1 2 3 4, and then our finger 5 plays the top note.
Then we do the same in reverse. 4 3 2 1 3 2 1, 4 3 2 1 3 2 1.
With your left hand you get 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 3 2 1, then the same in reverse.
Using those three flats,
pause the video and try your right hand and left hand playing the C na ...