C#maj11 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
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About C#maj11 — shell 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
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
C#maj11 has 5 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1, the middle four strings, strings 6-4-3-2, the bottom four strings and the top four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 10th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the C# shape at the 2nd fret.
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 12 drop 2, 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.