About C#mMaj7 — drop 2 voicings
C#mMaj7 is C#, E, G# and B# — C#m with the major seventh added on top.
It sounds tense and wrong-footed. A minor triad carrying a major seventh: the semitone under the root over a minor chord is the first bar of a line cliché.
Minor tonic — the tonic of the melodic minor.
C#mMaj7 notes and formula
| C# | E | G# | B# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 |
Also written C#mM7, C#m(maj7), C#-Δ7 or C#minMaj7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#mMaj7
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#mMaj7 has 13 of them, on the middle four strings, the bottom four strings and the top four strings, from open position up to the 13th — 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, 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.
Play C#mMaj7 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 9 (D#), the 11 (F#) or the 13 (A#).
All 6 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x4211x, 1st fret, C#, root position, top note B#, all fretted
- x46554, 4th fret, C#, root position, top note G#, all fretted
- x76698, 6th fret, E, 1st inversion, top note B#, all fretted
- x-x-11-9-9-8, 8th fret, C#, root position, top note B#, all fretted
- 9-11-10-9-9-9, 9th fret, C#, root position, top note C#, barred
- x-x-11-13-13-12, 11th fret, C#, root position, top note E, all fretted
How to use C#mMaj7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#mMaj7 is D#m7♭5 to G#7♭9: the ii and the V of C# minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
What to play over C#mMaj7
Every note of C#mMaj7 is in C# harmonic minor and C# melodic minor.
Chords near C#mMaj7
Change one note of C#mMaj7 and you have C#m (drop the major seventh), C#maj7 (the minor third becomes the major third), C#m6 (the major seventh becomes the sixth), C#m7 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh), C#mMaj7b5 (the fifth becomes the flat fifth) or C#mMaj9 (add the ninth).
C#mMaj7 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor 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.