C#m69 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C#m69 — drop 2 voicings
C#m69 is C#, E, G#, A# and D# — C#m6 with the ninth added as well.
It sounds cool and entirely at rest. No seventh, so nothing leans: a common last chord of a minor tune.
C#m69 notes and formula
| C# | E | G# | A# | D# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
Minor tonic — nothing in it is pulling.
Also written C#m6/9, C#min6/9 or C#-6/9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#m69
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#m69 has 13 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and the bottom four strings, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: C# in the bass, E in the bass, A# in the bass and D# in the bass. The one to learn first is the D# shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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.
Start with x41320 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. 5 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x41320 | open position | C#, root position | E | 1 open string |
| x4234x | 2nd fret | C#, root position | D# | all fretted |
| 9788x0 | 7th fret | C#, root position | E | 1 open string |
| x78899 | 7th fret | E, 1st inversion | C# | all fretted |
| 9-x-8-9-9-11 | 8th fret | C#, root position | D# | barred |
| 9-x-11-9-11-11 | 9th fret | C#, root position | D# | barred |
| x-x-11-9-11-11 | 9th fret | C#, root position | D# | barred |
| x-11-11-9-11-11 | 9th fret | G#, 2nd inversion | D# | barred |
| 12-11-11-13-11-11 | 11th fret | E, 1st inversion | D# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 9 drop 3 and 12 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of C#m69, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (F#).
How to use C#m69
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#m69 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#m69 belongs to Ab minor (the iv, the subdominant) and B major (the ii, the supertonic).
What to play over C#m69
Every note of C#m69 is in C# dorian and C# melodic minor.
Chords near C#m69
Change one note of C#m69 and you have C#m6 (drop the ninth), C#m9 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh), C#mMaj9 (the sixth becomes a major seventh), C#madd9 (drop the sixth) or C#69 (the minor third becomes a major third).
C#m69 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On C#m69’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.