C#maj11 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
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About C#maj11 — drop 2 voicings
C#maj11 is C#, E#, G#, B#, D# and F# — C#maj9 with the eleventh added — the note that fights the major third.
It sounds unsettled, and grittier than the rest of the major family. Most players drop the third or raise the eleventh instead, which is how you arrive at a sus chord or at maj7♯11.
C#maj11 notes and formula
| C# | E# | G# | B# | D# | F# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Tonic, awkwardly — the eleventh sits a semitone above the third.
Also written C#M11, C#Δ11 or C# major 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#maj11
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#maj11 has 12 of them, on the middle four strings, the bottom four strings and the top four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: C# in the bass, E# in the bass, B# in the bass and F# in the bass. The one to learn first is the C# shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
4 of them sit on the middle 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 x43522 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for C#maj11 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 3 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x43522 | 2nd fret | C#, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x44564 | 4th fret | C#, root position | G# | barred |
| 98xx78 | 7th fret | C#, root position | B# | all fretted |
| 9-9-10-10-9-9 | 9th fret | C#, root position | C# | barred |
| 9-9-10-10-9-11 | 9th fret | C#, root position | D# | barred |
| x-x-11-11-13-13 | 11th fret | C#, root position | E# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell, 8 drop 3 and 22 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of C#maj11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (A#).
How to use C#maj11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#maj11 is D#m7 to G#7 — the ii and the V of C# — and G#7 shares its third and seventh with D#m7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of C#maj11 belongs to C# major (the I, the tonic) and Bb minor (the ♭III).
What to play over C#maj11
Every note of C#maj11 is in C# major.
Chords near C#maj11
Change one note of C#maj11 and you have C#maj9 (drop the fourth), C#maj13 (the fourth becomes a sixth) or C#mMaj11 (the major third becomes a minor third).
C#maj11 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On C#maj11’s sound and use this page follows Barrie Nettles & Richard Graf, The Chord Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony (Advance Music, 1997). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.