C#maj7b5 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#maj7b5 — shell 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.
C#maj7b5 notes and formula
| C# | E# | G | B# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♭5 | 7 |
Coloured tonic — rare, and unstable for a major chord.
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
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#maj7b5 has 5 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1, strings 6-4-3-2, the bottom four strings, the middle four strings and the top four strings, from the 3rd 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 3rd fret.
Start with x4556x — no barre and low, at the 4th fret. None of the shapes for C#maj7b5 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 3rd fret. 2 of the 5 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 3rd fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x43563 | 3rd fret | C#, root position | G | all fretted |
| x4556x | 4th fret | C#, root position | E# | all fretted |
| 9-8-10-10-8-8 | 8th fret | C#, root position | B# | barred |
| 9-10-10-10-x-9 | 9th fret | C#, root position | C# | barred |
| x-x-11-12-13-13 | 11th fret | C#, root position | E# | all fretted |
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#maj7b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (D#) and the 13 (A#).
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 a fifth), C#maj7#5 (the flat fifth becomes a sharp fifth), C#mMaj7b5 (the major third becomes a minor third) or C#7b5 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh).
C#maj7b5 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On C#maj7b5’s sound and use this page follows Robert Rawlins & Nor Eddine Bahha, Jazzology (Hal Leonard, 2005). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.