C#m9 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C#m9 — uncommon voicings
C#m9 is C#, E, G#, B and D# — C#m7 with the ninth stacked above it.
It sounds warm, and considerably richer than an m7. The standard voicing for a ii chord once the plain one has been played enough.
Pre-dominant or minor tonic — an m7’s job with more colour.
C#m9 notes and formula
| C# | E | G# | B | D# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 |
Also written C#min9, C#-9 or C# minor 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#m9
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep E and B (they fix the quality) 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#m9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (F#) or the 13 (A#).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x4244x, 2nd fret, C#, root position, top note D#, barred
- x66657, 5th fret, D#, 9th in the bass, top note B, barred
- xx6857, 5th fret, G#, 2nd inversion, top note B, all fretted
- 97x897, 7th fret, C#, root position, top note B, all fretted
- x79899, 7th fret, E, 1st inversion, top note C#, barred
- 9-11-9-9-9-11, 9th fret, C#, root position, top note D#, barred
- 12-14-13-13-14-12, 12th fret, E, 1st inversion, top note E, all fretted
How to use C#m9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#m9 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#m9 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#m9
Every note of C#m9 is in C# natural minor and C# dorian.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where C#m9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near C#m9
Change one note of C#m9 and you have C#m69 (the flat seventh becomes the sixth), C#m7 (drop the ninth), C#m11 (add the eleventh), C#mMaj9 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh), C#madd9 (drop the flat seventh) or C#9 (the minor third becomes the major third).
C#m9 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.