C#maj7 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.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C#maj7 — shell voicings
C#maj7 is C#, E#, G# and B# — C# with the major seventh added on top.
It sounds lush, and only just resolved. The everyday tonic of jazz, bossa and neo-soul.
C#maj7 notes and formula
| C# | E# | G# | B# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
Tonic — a resting chord, but a soft one.
Also written C#M7, C#Δ7, C#Δ, C#ma7 or C# major 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#maj7
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#maj7 has 4 of them, on the low-middle three, the bottom three strings, strings 5-3-2 and strings 6-4-3, from the 3rd fret up to the 9th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the C# shape at the 3rd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xxx668 — no barre and only 3 fretted notes. None of the shapes for C#maj7 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 4 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x43111 | 1st fret | C#, root position | E# | barred |
| x4352x | 2nd fret | C#, root position | C# | all fretted |
| x46564 | 4th fret | C#, root position | G# | all fretted |
| xxx668 | 6th fret | C#, root position | B# | all fretted |
| xx6668 | 6th fret | G#, 2nd inversion | B# | barred |
| 9-11-10-10-9-9 | 9th fret | C#, root position | C# | barred |
| x-x-11-13-13-13 | 11th fret | C#, root position | E# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 13 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of C#maj7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (D#), the #11 (F##) and the 13 (A#).
How to use C#maj7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#maj7 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#maj7 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#maj7
Every note of C#maj7 is in C# major and C# lydian.
Chords near C#maj7
Change one note of C#maj7 and you have C# (drop the major seventh), C#maj7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), C#maj7#5 (the fifth becomes a sharp fifth), C#maj9 (add the ninth), C#mMaj7 (the major third becomes a minor third) or C#add9 (the major seventh becomes a ninth).
C#maj7 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On C#maj7’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.