C#m69 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#m69 — rootless 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
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#m69 has 12 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, A# in the bass and D# in the bass. The one to learn first is the E shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
4 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, 13 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 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.