C#maj7b5 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#maj7b5 — drop 3 voicings
C#maj7b5 is C#, E#, G and B# — C#maj7 with the fifth lowered a semitone.
It sounds hollow and hard to place. Far more often met spelled the other way round, as a ♯11 over a chord that kept its fifth.
Coloured tonic — rare, and unstable for a major chord.
C#maj7b5 notes and formula
| C# | E# | G | B# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♭5 | 7 |
Also written C#M7b5, C#Δ7b5 or C#maj7(b5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#maj7b5
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#maj7b5 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: C# in the bass, E# in the bass, G in the bass and B# in the bass. The one to learn first is the B# shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, 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.
Play C#maj7b5 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 9 (D#) or the 13 (A#).
All 5 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x43563, 3rd fret, C#, root position, top note G, all fretted
- x4556x, 4th fret, C#, root position, top note E#, all fretted
- 9-8-10-10-8-8, 8th fret, C#, root position, top note B#, barred
- 9-10-10-10-x-9, 9th fret, C#, root position, top note C#, barred
- x-x-11-12-13-13, 11th fret, C#, root position, top note E#, all fretted
How to use C#maj7b5
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#maj7b5 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#maj7b5 belongs to F minor (the ♭VI) and Ab major (the IV, the subdominant).
What to play over C#maj7b5
Every note of C#maj7b5 is in C# lydian.
Chords near C#maj7b5
Change one note of C#maj7b5 and you have C#maj7 (the flat fifth becomes the fifth), C#maj7#5 (the flat fifth becomes the sharp fifth), C#mMaj7b5 (the major third becomes the minor third) or C#7b5 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh).
C#maj7b5 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.