C#13 guitar chord
The root left to the bass player. Frees a finger for a tension.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C#13 — rootless voicings
C#13 is C#, E#, G#, B, D# and A# — C#9 with the thirteenth added on top.
It sounds big and open. Six notes will not fit under four fingers: the fifth goes first, then the ninth, and the third, flat seventh and thirteenth stay.
C#13 notes and formula
| C# | E# | G# | B | D# | A# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 13 |
Dominant — the full V chord.
Also written C#dom13 or C# dominant 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#13
Leave the root to the bass player. In a band nobody misses it, and the ear supplies it from the guide tones anyway.
The finger it frees goes to a tension, which is why these sound richer than the shape they came from rather than thinner.
C#13 has 25 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: E# in the bass, G# in the bass, B in the bass, D# in the bass and A# in the bass. The one to learn first is the D# shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
9 of them sit on the top four strings, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with x43302 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 6 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 11th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x43302 | open position | C#, root position | Gb | 1 open string |
| x43466 | 3rd fret | C#, root position | A# | all fretted |
| x43446 | 3rd fret | C#, root position | A# | barred |
| 444466 | 4th fret | G#, 2nd inversion | A# | barred |
| 968667 | 6th fret | C#, root position | B | barred |
| 988897 | 7th fret | C#, root position | B | barred |
| 9-9-9-10-11-11 | 9th fret | C#, root position | D# | barred |
| 9-11-9-10-11-9 | 9th fret | C#, root position | C# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 2 shell, 13 drop 2, 9 drop 3 and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of C#13, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (F##).
How to use C#13
C#13 is the V of F#, and that is where it goes if it goes anywhere: the third and the flat seventh are a tritone apart, and both resolve by a semitone into F#.
Voice by voice, C#13 → F#. 2 voices move by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In C#13 | Moves | In F# |
|---|---|---|
| C#, the root | stays where it is | C#, the fifth |
| E#, the major third | rises a semitone | F#, the root |
| G#, the fifth | falls a whole tone | F#, the root |
| B, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | A#, the major third |
| D#, the ninth | falls a whole tone | C#, the fifth |
| A#, the thirteenth | stays where it is | A#, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of C#13 belongs to Eb minor (the ♭VII) and F# major (the V, the dominant).
What to play over C#13
Every note of C#13 is in C# mixolydian and C# lydian dominant.
Chords near C#13
Change one note of C#13 and you have C#maj13 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), C#69 (drop the flat seventh), C#9 (drop the sixth) or C#9#11 (the sixth becomes a flat fifth).
C#13 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On C#13’s sound and use this page follows Ted Pease & Ken Pullig, Modern Jazz Voicings (Berklee Press, 2001). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.