C#6 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C#6 — shell 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
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
C#6 has 4 of them, on the low-middle three, the bottom three strings, strings 5-3-2 and strings 6-4-3, from the 3rd fret up to the 8th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the C# shape at the 3rd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
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 13 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 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.