About C#6 — drop 3 voicings
C#6 is C#, E#, G# and A# — C# with a major sixth added on top.
It sounds warm, and finished without being sweet. It closes a tune as firmly as the triad does but without the maj7’s shine, which is why so many standards end on one.
C#6 notes and formula
| C# | E# | G# | A# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
Tonic — an ending chord.
Also written C#maj6, C#M6 or C# major 6. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#6
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
C#6 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: C# in the bass, E# in the bass, G# in the bass and A# in the bass. The one to learn first is the A# shape at the nut.
5 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 x4332x — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for C#6 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 4 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x4332x | 2nd fret | C#, root position | C# | all fretted |
| x46666 | 4th fret | C#, root position | A# | barred |
| x86666 | 6th fret | E#, 1st inversion | A# | barred |
| 988666 | 6th fret | C#, root position | A# | barred |
| 686696 | 6th fret | A#, 6th in the bass | A# | barred |
| 9-x-8-10-9-x | 8th fret | C#, root position | G# | all fretted |
| 9-x-11-10-11-9 | 9th fret | C#, root position | C# | all fretted |
| 9-11-x-10-11-9 | 9th fret | C#, root position | C# | all fretted |
| x-x-11-13-11-13 | 11th fret | C#, root position | E# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell and 13 drop 2 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of C#6, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (D#) and the #11 (F##).
How to use C#6
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#6 is D#m7 to G#7 — the ii and the V of C# — and G#7 shares its third and seventh with D#m7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of C#6 belongs to C# major (the I), Eb minor (the ♭VII), F minor (the ♭VI), F# major (the V), Ab major (the IV) and Bb minor (the ♭III).
What to play over C#6
Every note of C#6 is in C# major pentatonic, C# major, C# lydian, C# mixolydian and C# lydian dominant.
Chords near C#6
Change one note of C#6 and you have C# (drop the sixth), C#maj7 (the sixth becomes a major seventh), C#m6 (the major third becomes a minor third), C#add9 (the sixth becomes a ninth), C#69 (add the ninth) or C#7 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh).
C#6 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On C#6’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Piano Book (Sher Music, 1989). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.