CmMaj7 guitar chord
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. Because it costs no finger, it sounds a note the closed shape has none left for -- a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath. Either a familiar grip with open strings added, or a shape so sparse the open strings carry the chord. These belong to their key rather than to a shape, so D, A, G and E have many and Eb a handful.
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About CmMaj7 — open string voicings
CmMaj7 is C, Eb, G and B — Cm with the major seventh added on top.
It sounds tense and wrong-footed. A minor triad carrying a major seventh: the semitone under the root over a minor chord is the first bar of a line cliché.
CmMaj7 notes and formula
| C | Eb | G | B |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 |
Minor tonic — the tonic of the melodic minor.
Also written CmM7, Cm(maj7), C-Δ7 or CminMaj7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play CmMaj7
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. It costs no finger, so it can sound a note the closed shape has none left for: a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath.
These belong to their key rather than to a shape: they cannot be moved up the neck. D, A, G and E have many; E♭ has a handful.
CmMaj7 has 3 of them, on the bottom four strings, strings 6-5-4-3-2 and the middle four strings, from the 3rd fret up to the 6th — every inversion the chord has: Eb in the bass, G in the bass and B in the bass. The one to learn first is the B shape at the 6th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with x3100x — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 1 of the 7 needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x3100x | open position | C, root position | B | 2 open strings |
| x35443 | 3rd fret | C, root position | G | all fretted |
| x65587 | 5th fret | Eb, 1st inversion | B | all fretted |
| x-x-10-8-8-7 | 7th fret | C, root position | B | all fretted |
| 8-10-9-8-8-8 | 8th fret | C, root position | C | barred |
| x-x-10-12-12-11 | 10th fret | C, root position | Eb | all fretted |
| x-15-13-12-12-x | 12th fret | C, root position | B | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 13 drop 2 and 8 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of CmMaj7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (D), the 11 (F) and the 13 (A).
How to use CmMaj7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on CmMaj7 is Dm7♭5 to G7♭9: the ii and the V of C minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
What to play over CmMaj7
Every note of CmMaj7 is in C harmonic minor and C melodic minor.
Chords near CmMaj7
Change one note of CmMaj7 and you have Cm (drop the major seventh), Cmaj7 (the minor third becomes a major third), Cm6 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), Cm7 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh), CmMaj7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth) or CmMaj9 (add the ninth).
CmMaj7 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On CmMaj7’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.