CmMaj9 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About CmMaj9 — uncommon voicings
CmMaj9 is C, Eb, G, B and D — CmMaj7 with the ninth added on top.
It sounds the same unease with more colour over it. The ninth softens the edge without resolving anything.
Minor tonic — melodic minor, extended.
CmMaj9 notes and formula
| C | Eb | G | B | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Also written CmM9, Cm(maj9) or C-Δ9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play CmMaj9
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep Eb and B (they fix the quality) and D (what the symbol is about). Let G and C go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play CmMaj9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (F) or the 13 (A).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x30443, open position, C, root position, top note G, 1 open string
- x3143x, 1st fret, C, root position, top note D, all fretted
- 365433, 3rd fret, G, 2nd inversion, top note G, barred
- 86x708, 6th fret, C, root position, top note C, 1 open string
- 86x787, 6th fret, C, root position, top note B, all fretted
- 8697xx, 6th fret, C, root position, top note D, all fretted
- 8-10-9-8-8-10, 8th fret, C, root position, top note D, barred
- 10-10-10-12-12-11, 10th fret, D, 9th in the bass, top note Eb, barred
How to use CmMaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on CmMaj9 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 CmMaj9
Every note of CmMaj9 is in C harmonic minor and C melodic minor.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where CmMaj9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near CmMaj9
Change one note of CmMaj9 and you have Cmaj9 (the minor third becomes the major third), Cm69 (the major seventh becomes the sixth), Cm9 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh), CmMaj7 (drop the ninth), CmMaj11 (add the eleventh) or Cmadd9 (drop the major seventh).
CmMaj9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.