Piano chord · Minor triad
F minor piano chord (Fm)
F, A♭ and C, played together. Root position is highlighted on the keyboard below — press play to hear it.
Notes in Fm: F, A♭ and C
| Note | Interval from the root | Key around middle C |
|---|---|---|
| F | Root | F4 · white key |
| A♭ | Minor 3rd | G♯4 · black key |
| C | Perfect 5th | C5 · white key |
- Chord symbol: Fm — F minor
- Formula: R · b3 · 5 (0 · 3 · 7 semitones from the root)
- Right hand fingering: 1-3-5 — thumb, middle finger and little finger
- Left hand fingering: 5-3-1, little finger on the root
How Fm works
F minor is F major with the third flattened to A♭, so the outer frame of the hand never changes — only finger 3 moves back onto a black key. It is the iv chord of C minor and the engine of countless slow, dark progressions.
Fm inversions
An inversion keeps the same notes and changes which one is at the bottom. That matters because it lets you move between chords without jumping: the closer the notes of the next chord are to the ones your hand is already holding, the smoother it sounds and the easier it is to play. Root position first, then two inversions.
Root position
F–A♭–C — the root, F, is at the bottom.
1st inversion — A♭ in the bass
A♭–C–F — the same three notes, reordered so A♭ is lowest.
2nd inversion — C in the bass
C–F–A♭ — the same three notes, reordered so C is lowest.
Common mistakes on Fm
- Leaving the third on A natural, which is F major.
- Moving the whole hand up to reach A♭ instead of just the middle finger.
- Sounding A♭ late, because the black key sits further from the front edge than its neighbours.
Piano chord data last updated . Every diagram here, in the printable PDF and in the chart image comes from one dataset, so the paper and the screen cannot disagree.