C Sharp Minor Scale (Piano)

The C-sharp minor scale is C♯, D♯, E, F♯, G♯, A, B, C♯: four sharps (F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯), three white keys and four black ones. It is the natural minor scale, the same notes as E major starting from C♯, and it sounds darker for it.

Everything about the C♯ minor scale is on this page. The notes and their degree names, the fingering for each hand with the thumb crossings marked, the key signature and the keys next to it, the chords the scale makes, and a short practice order. Click the sheet music to play it in Chordzy and have each note checked as you go.

Ascending, the C♯ minor scale is one octave up and back:

Up: C♯, D♯, E, F♯, G♯, A, B, C♯ Down: C♯, B, A, G♯, F♯, E, D♯, C♯

Each note has a degree number and a name. The names are worth knowing because every teacher and every theory book uses them, and they are the same seven words in every key.

The step pattern is whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole. That pattern is what makes it minor; start it on any other note and you get that note's minor scale.

Standard fingering for the C♯ minor scale, one octave, ascending. The finger is written before the note (1 is the thumb).

Right hand: 3 (C♯), 4 (D♯), 1 (E), 2 (F♯), 3 (G♯), 1 (A), 2 (B), 3 (C♯) Left hand: 3 (C♯), 2 (D♯), 1 (E), 4 (F♯), 3 (G♯), 2 (A), 1 (B), 2 (C♯)

Descending, each hand uses the same fingers in reverse. Two octaves: right hand 3-4-1-2-3-1-2-3-4-1-2-3-1-2-3, left hand 3-2-1-4-3-2-1-3-2-1-4-3-2-1-2.

The thumb stays on white keys: E and A in the right hand, E and B in the left. The black keys fall under fingers 2, 3 and 4 in the right hand, which is where a long finger wants to be. In the right hand the thumb goes under after D♯ and G♯, and in the left hand finger 4 crosses over after E. Slow those moments down until the note after the turn is no louder than the one before it. Everything else in the scale is a hand moving sideways.

C♯ minor is written with four sharps (F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯), in that order at the start of every line. From then on every F, C, G and D on the page is sharp, in every octave, until a natural sign says otherwise.

The keys nearest to it:

E major is the one to watch. It has the same signature as C♯ minor, so the signature cannot tell you which of the two you are in; the first bass note and the last chord usually can.

Take every other note of the C♯ minor scale and you get its chords. The four below carry most of the songs written in the key.

Play C♯m, then F♯m, then G♯m, then C♯m again, one chord per bar with the left hand on the root. That is the scale turned into music, and it is the first thing to do once the notes are secure. There is more: all seven triads in C♯ minor triad chords, and the sevenths and progressions in the key of C♯ minor.

A scale you can hear is worth more than one you can only play. Three drills, at the piano, two minutes each.

Sing degrees 1, 3, 5 and 8 in C♯ minor: C♯, E, G♯, C♯. Then play them and see how close you were. Most people are flat on the third the first week.

Play 7 then 1, slowly. B sits a whole step below C♯, not a half step, so it leans on C♯ more gently than a major key's seventh would. That softer pull is most of what makes natural minor sound the way it does. Raise it to B♯ and you have the harmonic minor, which is how composers get the pull back.

Play four or five notes from the scale, sing them back, then play them again. When you can do that with your eyes shut, the key of C♯ minor is in your head and not only in your hands.

Ten minutes a day for a week, in this order.

1. Right hand, C♯ to C♯, one octave. Stop on the thumb turn after D♯ and play it again until the note after it is no louder than the one before.
2. Left hand, the same octave. Finger 3 starts it and finger 2 ends it.
3. Hands together. Both thumbs land on E at the same moment, and nowhere else. Feel for that note and the rest of the octave falls into place around it.
4. The same octave in long-short rhythm, then short-long. Uneven fingers show up in the second one and fix themselves in the first.
5. Two octaves, once the single octave stays even. Louder going up, softer coming down.

Then click the sheet music above to play the C♯ minor scale in Chordzy, in the browser or in the app, and see each wrong finger as it happens rather than a week later.

Some of what has been written in C♯ minor:

• Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 14 "Moonlight"
• Rachmaninoff, Prelude Op. 3 No. 2
• Chopin, Fantaisie-Impromptu

Listen to one of them with the scale in your ear and you will hear C♯ as home from the first bar. That is the point of scale practice, and the rest is fingers.