C#maj13 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C#maj13 — drop 2 voicings
C#maj13 is C#, E#, G#, B#, D# and A# — C#maj9 with the thirteenth on top, and the eleventh left out.
It sounds full and wide open. Six notes into four fingers means something goes: keep the third, the seventh and the thirteenth.
C#maj13 notes and formula
| C# | E# | G# | B# | D# | A# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
Tonic — the major sound with most of the scale showing.
Also written C#M13, C#Δ13 or C# major 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#maj13
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#maj13 has 13 of them, on the middle four strings, the top four strings and the bottom four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: C# in the bass, E# in the bass, B# in the bass and A# in the bass. The one to learn first is the B# shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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 x43311 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for C#maj13 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 4 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x41311 | 1st fret | C#, root position | E# | barred |
| x43311 | 1st fret | C#, root position | E# | all fretted |
| x44566 | 4th fret | C#, root position | A# | all fretted |
| 988898 | 8th fret | C#, root position | B# | barred |
| 9-9-10-10-11-9 | 9th fret | C#, root position | C# | barred |
| x-13-11-11-13-13 | 11th fret | A#, 13th in the bass | E# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 2 shell, 9 drop 3 and 25 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of C#maj13, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (F##).
How to use C#maj13
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#maj13 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#maj13 belongs to C# major (the I, the tonic), F minor (the ♭VI), Ab major (the IV, the subdominant) and Bb minor (the ♭III).
What to play over C#maj13
Every note of C#maj13 is in C# major and C# lydian.
Chords near C#maj13
Change one note of C#maj13 and you have C#maj9 (drop the sixth), C#maj11 (the sixth becomes a fourth), C#69 (drop the major seventh) or C#13 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh).
C#maj13 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On C#maj13’s sound and use this page follows Ted Pease & Ken Pullig, Modern Jazz Voicings (Berklee Press, 2001). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.