C#maj9 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C#maj9 — uncommon voicings
C#maj9 is C#, E#, G#, B# and D# — C#maj7 with the ninth stacked above it.
It sounds a maj7 with more air in it. The ninth argues with nothing here, so it works anywhere a maj7 does.
Tonic — an extended resting chord.
C#maj9 notes and formula
| C# | E# | G# | B# | D# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Also written C#M9, C#Δ9, C#ma9 or C# major 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#maj9
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep E# and B# (they fix the quality) and D# (what the symbol is about). Let G# and C# go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play C#maj9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (F##) or the 13 (A#).
All 11 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x41111, 1st fret, C#, root position, top note E#, barred
- x4354x, 3rd fret, C#, root position, top note D#, all fretted
- 44354x, 3rd fret, G#, 2nd inversion, top note D#, barred
- x66668, 6th fret, D#, 9th in the bass, top note B#, barred
- xx6868, 6th fret, G#, 2nd inversion, top note B#, all fretted
- 966668, 6th fret, C#, root position, top note B#, barred
- 9-8-10-8-9-8, 8th fret, C#, root position, top note B#, barred
- 9-11-10-10-9-11, 9th fret, C#, root position, top note D#, all fretted
- x-x-10-10-9-11, 9th fret, B#, 3rd inversion, top note D#, all fretted
- x-x-11-10-13-11, 10th fret, C#, root position, top note D#, all fretted
- 13-11-11-13-13-11, 11th fret, E#, 1st inversion, top note D#, barred
How to use C#maj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#maj9 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#maj9 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#maj9
Every note of C#maj9 is in C# major and C# lydian.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where C#maj9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near C#maj9
Change one note of C#maj9 and you have C#maj7 (drop the ninth), C#maj11 (add the eleventh), C#maj13 (add the thirteenth), C#mMaj9 (the major third becomes the minor third), C#add9 (drop the major seventh) or C#69 (the major seventh becomes the sixth).
C#maj9 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.