C#m69 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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About C#m69 — drop 3 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
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
C#m69 has 9 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, 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 E shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, 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, 13 drop 2 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.