C#9b5 guitar chord
The standard grips this chord is usually shown with.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C#9b5 — root position
C#9b5 is C#, E#, G, B and D# — C#7b5 with the natural ninth added over it.
It sounds sleek and tense. Played as a tritone substitution the ♭5 is the root of the dominant it replaced.
C#9b5 notes and formula
| C# | E# | G | B | D# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♭5 | ♭7 | 9 |
Altered dominant — commonly the tritone substitute.
Also written C#9(b5), C#9-5 or C#9♭5. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#9b5
C#9b5 in root position puts C# in the bass, which is the chord as it is spelled: the note it is named after underneath everything else.
4 of C#9b5’s 5 common shapes do this: x43443, 989889, 9-10-x-10-0-11, 9-10-9-10-x-11.
Start with 9-10-x-10-0-11 — no barre and 1 open string. None of the shapes for C#9b5 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 3rd fret. 2 of the 5 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 3rd fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x43443 | 3rd fret | C#, root position | G | barred |
| 989889 | 8th fret | C#, root position | C# | barred |
| 9-10-x-10-0-11 | 9th fret | C#, root position | D# | 1 open string |
| 9-10-9-10-x-11 | 9th fret | C#, root position | D# | all fretted |
| x-10-11-10-12-11 | 10th fret | G, 2nd inversion | D# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 8 shell and 13 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of C#9b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b13 (A) and the 13 (A#).
How to use C#9b5
C#9b5 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#9b5 → F#. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In C#9b5 | 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 flat fifth | falls a semitone | F#, the root |
| B, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | A#, the major third |
| D#, the ninth | falls a whole tone | C#, the fifth |
What to play over C#9b5
Every note of C#9b5 is in C# whole tone and C# lydian dominant.
Chords near C#9b5
Change one note of C#9b5 and you have C#7b5 (drop the ninth), C#9 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), C#aug9 (the flat fifth becomes a sharp fifth) or C#9#11 (add the fifth).
C#9b5 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On C#9b5’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.