C#7#9 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About C#7#9 — drop 2 voicings
C#7#9 is C#, E#, G#, B and E — C#9 with the ninth raised a semitone.
It sounds gritty and contradictory. The minor third sounding over the major third; every guitarist knows it as the Hendrix chord.
C#7#9 notes and formula
| C# | E# | G# | B | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | ♯9 |
Altered dominant — dominant function with a blues third on top.
Also written C#7(#9), C#7+9 or C#7♯9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#7#9
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
C#7#9 has 12 of them, on the middle four strings, the bottom four strings and the top four strings, from open position up to the 10th — every inversion the chord has: C# in the bass, E# in the bass, B in the bass and D## in the bass. The one to learn first is the C# shape at the 3rd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
4 of them sit on the middle 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 x43420 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. 4 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x43420 | open position | C#, root position | E | 1 open string |
| x4345x | 3rd fret | C#, root position | E | all fretted |
| x76667 | 6th fret | D##, 9th in the bass | B | barred |
| 9899xx | 8th fret | C#, root position | E | barred |
| x89999 | 8th fret | E#, 1st inversion | C# | barred |
| 9-11-9-10-9-12 | 9th fret | C#, root position | E | barred |
| 9-11-9-10-12-12 | 9th fret | C#, root position | E | all fretted |
| x-x-11-10-12-12 | 10th fret | C#, root position | E | all fretted |
| x-11-11-10-12-12 | 10th fret | G#, 2nd inversion | E | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 8 drop 3, 13 rootless and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of C#7#9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (F##), the b13 (A) and the 13 (A#).
How to use C#7#9
C#7#9 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at F# — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
Voice by voice, C#7#9 → F#. 2 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In C#7#9 | 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 |
| E, the sharp ninth | rises a whole tone | F#, the root |
What to play over C#7#9
Every note of C#7#9 is in C# half-whole diminished.
Chords near C#7#9
Change one note of C#7#9 and you have C#m7 (drop the major third), C#m9 (the major third becomes a ninth), C#7 (drop the minor third), C#9 (the minor third becomes a ninth) or C#7b9 (the minor third becomes a flat ninth).
C#7#9 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On C#7#9’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.