C#m11 guitar chord
The root left to the bass player. Frees a finger for a tension.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C#m11 — rootless voicings
C#m11 is C#, E, G#, B, D# and F# — C#m9 with the eleventh added on top.
It sounds spacious and slightly unresolved. The eleventh is a whole step above the minor third, so unlike its major counterpart it fits without a fight.
Pre-dominant or minor tonic — it hangs rather than moves.
C#m11 notes and formula
| C# | E | G# | B | D# | F# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 11 |
Also written C#min11, C#-11 or C# minor 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#m11
Leave the root to the bass player. In a band nobody misses it, and the ear supplies it from the guide tones anyway.
The finger it frees goes to a tension, which is why these sound richer than the shape they came from rather than thinner.
C#m11 has 22 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: E in the bass, G# in the bass, B in the bass, D# in the bass and F# in the bass. The one to learn first is the E shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
8 of them sit on the top 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.
Six notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep E and B (they fix the quality) and F# and D# (what the symbol is about). Let G# and C# go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play C#m11 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 13 (A#).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x42422, 2nd fret, C#, root position, top note F#, barred
- x42442, 2nd fret, C#, root position, top note F#, barred
- x44454, 4th fret, C#, root position, top note G#, barred
- 979877, 7th fret, C#, root position, top note B, barred
- 9x997x, 7th fret, C#, root position, top note F#, barred
- 9-9-9-9-9-11, 9th fret, C#, root position, top note D#, barred
- x-x-11-11-12-12, 11th fret, C#, root position, top note E, all fretted
How to use C#m11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#m11 is D#m7♭5 to G#7♭9: the ii and the V of C# minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of C#m11 belongs to C# minor (the i, the tonic), E major (the vi, the submediant), Ab minor (the iv, the subdominant) and B major (the ii, the supertonic).
What to play over C#m11
Every note of C#m11 is in C# dorian and C# natural minor.
Chords near C#m11
Change one note of C#m11 and you have C#m9 (drop the eleventh) or C#mMaj11 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh).
C#m11 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.