Triads
F♯ minor chord
Darker and more melancholy than major, but just as stable.
F♯m is the ii chord in E major, iii in D major and vi in A major. In minor keys: i in F♯ minor and iv in C♯ minor.
- Notes
- F♯AC♯
- Formula
- 1♭35
- Built from
- root · minor 3rd · perfect 5th
How to play F♯m
About the F♯ minor chord
F♯ minor is the relative minor of A major and a regular in songs in A, D and E. On guitar it’s often the first minor barre chord people learn.
Playing it
There’s no open-string way to play F♯m on guitar with the root in the bass, so the standard shape is a barre across the 2nd fret (244222). While you build strength, you can play just the top four strings of the same shape (xx4222).
On piano, F♯m has two black keys (F♯ and C♯) and one white key.
On ukulele the usual F♯m shape is 2120, using three fingers.
Related chords
F♯m shares two of its three notes with A (A and C♯), its relative major, and with D (F♯ and A). That overlap is why these chords sound so natural next to each other — and why they can often stand in for one another.
Move a single note and F♯m becomes a different chord: raise A to A♯ for F♯, add E for F♯m7, swap A for B for F♯sus4 and lower A to G♯ for F♯sus2.
Where you’ll hear it
You’ll find F♯m in common progressions such as F♯m–D–A–E (the minor-feel pop progression in A major), F♯m–Bm–C♯–F♯m (the minor cadence in F♯ minor) and F♯m–E–D–C♯ (the Andalusian cadence in F♯ minor).
