Every so often, you’re bound to run into a C# minor (C#m) chord on guitar. And as you might guess, this chord is a bit trickier than C, E, D, G, or A.

Fortunately, you get some choices in how you fret C#m. You can make it easy, you can make it hard, or you can go somewhere in between. This post will lay out some options for you.

Check out 6 ways to play the C# minor chord above.

Looking these over, you’ll probably gravitate toward certain shapes more than others. That’s the nice thing about having options!

Remember the importance of musical context in choosing a shape as well. For instance, if you’ve just played a chord that starts on the 7th fret, it’s going to make more sense to shift up to the 9th fret rather than all the way down to 1st position.

Also bear in mind that selective strumming (or plucking) is key here. Anywhere you see a big “X” above the grid indicates that the string below it shouldn’t sound. Notice that only one of the chords above uses all six strings!

Sounding the strings selectively becomes easier the more you practice it. My own method is to isolate the right hand alone, trying to hit all the right strings without even bothering to fret.

This type of practice really helps you focus on your strumming technique and will solve your right-hand problems a lot faster than if you’re trying to work on everything at once.
 

What exactly is the C# minor chord anyway? That is, what’s the theory behind it? Well, the C# minor chord is derived from the scale of the same name, which consists of the notes C#, D#, E, F#, G#, A, and B.

Basic chords are built from the 1st, 3rd, and 5th degrees of a given scale. So in this case, we’ll need the notes C# (1st degree), E (3rd degree), and G# (5th degree).

Any other note we add outside of these three actually changes the quality of the chord. For instance, if we add B to the mix we’re now playing a C#m7 chord.

That said, we can play multiples of the same notes. That means it’s completely fine to play two C#’s along with E and G#. In music theory, this is called doubling chord tones.

If very little of this makes sense to you, I suggest you get yourself a few Helpful Guitar Theory Books. You might also want to check out this detailed explanation of C# minor.

The easiest way to play the C# minor chord on guitar is the shape below:

This is about as easy as C#m gets. And in many ways, it’s easier than a basic G chord. The only trick here is to avoid hitting the two lower strings with your strum. It’s a 4-string shape, much like a D chord.

In case you’re wondering about the notes, you’ll remember from above that a C#m chord consists of C#, E, and G#.

In this shape, your 2nd finger plays E, your 1st finger plays G#, your 3rd finger plays C#, and of course the open E string sounds on top.

Even though this shape is easier than the others, it’s not essentially any less sophisticated. That is, you don’t have to feel bad about avoiding the barre chord versions.

However, if you find yourself avoiding barre chords more often than not, you could probably gain a lot from these Barre Chord Secrets

Learning new chords on guitar can be hard for a number of reasons.

If a chord is physically hard to play, you probably need to break it down. Try to zoom in on the feeling of each finger alone, always trying to figure out where the main issues are. Often, the culprit is a big two-finger stretch within a larger shape.

Be sure to slow things down as well. Rather than always switching to or away from the problem chord, you might consider holding it for 10-20 seconds. This is almost like meditating on a chord shape.

You’ll notice that the more often you hold a foreign-feeling chord, the sooner it’ll feel like a home base for the hand. This sort of exercise also helps you memorize new chords, which is crucial of you’re going to make good use of them.

If you feel like you struggle with the changes as well, you should check out my post on How to Change Chords Fast.
 

Barring is one of the hardest guitar techniques. It’s almost like a rite of passage that separates beginner or intermediate guitarists from more advanced ones.

The good news is that if you follow a Smart Guitar Practice Method, you’ll get the hang of barre chords before long. You just need to isolate them and practice them frequently.

You also might need to tackle barre-chord phobia. Don’t be so afraid of barre chords that you never practice them. It takes a little bit of faith, but you need to accept that you will be able to do them if you put the effort in.

One secret that really helped me was to force myself to barre every time I practiced, no matter what.

I found that the more I barred, the more I started to actually like it. You may find this hard to believe (and I wouldn’t have believed it a few years ago), but once you can barre well, it’s actually often easier to barre than not to barre certain chords. Trust me!
 

The C# minor chord is definitely on the advanced side, so if you’ve made it this far, you should really pat yourself on the back. Not every guitarist makes it beyond C, A, G, E, and D after all.

Also, don’t feel the need to memorize all six of the chord shapes above. Instead, start with one and practice it until you know it by heart.

You’ll feel a lot more capable mastering a single shape than taking on too many at once and forgetting all of them. Remember that you can always come back to learn more when you’re ready.

Best of luck in the practice room!

Are you looking to upgrade your gear or browse some awesome guitar learning materials? Check out my recommendations page to see all my favorite stuff. 

Want to streamline your fingerstyle guitar progress? I just released my new ebook, Fingerstyle Fitness, which presents 10 easy exercises to quickly develop your fingerstyle chops. Grab it today!