About C#5 — triad voicings
C#5 is C# and G# — C# with the third taken out altogether.
It sounds blunt, and neither major nor minor. Distortion turns a real third to mud, which is why rock guitar plays this instead of a triad.
C#5 notes and formula
| C# | G# |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5 |
Neutral — with no third it commits to no mode.
Also written C#(no 3rd) or C# power chord. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#5
Three notes on one string set. No seventh, so nothing is claimed about the chord beyond its quality.
Thin on their own, excellent over a bass line or against someone else’s harmony.
C#5 has 19 of them, on the low-middle three, the bottom three strings, the bottom four strings, the top three strings, strings 5-3-2-1, the high-middle three, strings 6-4-3-2, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: C# in the bass and G# in the bass. The one to learn first is the C# shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
3 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, 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 x46xxx — only 2 fretted notes and low, at the 4th fret. None of the shapes for C#5 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 4th fret. None of them needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 4th fret to the 11th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x46xxx | 4th fret | C#, root position | G# | all fretted |
| 9-11-11-x-x-x | 9th fret | C#, root position | C# | all fretted |
How to use C#5
In which keys. Every note of C#5 belongs to C# major (the I), C# minor (the i), Eb minor (the ♭VII), E major (the vi), F minor (the ♭VI), F# major (the V), F# minor (the v), Ab major (the IV), Ab minor (the iv), A major (the iii), Bb minor (the ♭III) and B major (the ii).
What to play over C#5
Every note of C#5 is in C# major pentatonic, C# minor pentatonic, C# blues, C# major and C# lydian.
Chords near C#5
Change one note of C#5 and you have C# (add the major third), C#m (add the minor third), C#sus2 (add the ninth) or C#sus4 (add the fourth).
C#5 is a suspended chord — root and fifth, with a second or fourth where the third would be — or nothing at all. Suspended and power chords on every root.
On C#5’s sound and use this page follows Robert Rawlins & Nor Eddine Bahha, Jazzology (Hal Leonard, 2005). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.