C#maj11 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C#maj11 — drop 3 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.
Tonic, awkwardly — the eleventh sits a semitone above the third.
C#maj11 notes and formula
| C# | E# | G# | B# | D# | F# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
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
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#maj11 has 8 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, 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 F# shape at the 2nd fret.
4 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.
Six notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep E# and B# (they fix the quality) and F# 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#maj11 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 13 (A#).
All 6 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x43522, 2nd fret, C#, root position, top note F#, all fretted
- x44564, 4th fret, C#, root position, top note G#, barred
- 98xx78, 7th fret, C#, root position, top note B#, all fretted
- 9-9-10-10-9-9, 9th fret, C#, root position, top note C#, barred
- 9-9-10-10-9-11, 9th fret, C#, root position, top note D#, barred
- x-x-11-11-13-13, 11th fret, C#, root position, top note E#, all fretted
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 eleventh), C#maj13 (the eleventh becomes the thirteenth) or C#mMaj11 (the major third becomes the minor third).
C#maj11 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major 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.