C#mMaj7b5 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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About C#mMaj7b5 — drop 3 voicings
C#mMaj7b5 is C#, E, G and B# — C#m7b5 with the seventh raised a semitone.
It sounds brittle and impossible to mistake. Scarce enough that most players meet it as a passing sonority rather than as a chord they chose.
C#mMaj7b5 notes and formula
| C# | E | G | B# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | 7 |
Rare tonic — a half-diminished chord with its seventh raised instead.
Also written C#mM7b5 or C#m(maj7)b5. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#mMaj7b5
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#mMaj7b5 has 9 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from the 2nd fret 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 G shape at the 2nd fret.
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.
Start with x42010 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 6 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x42010 | open position | C#, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| x4x553 | 3rd fret | C#, root position | G | all fretted |
| x4555x | 4th fret | C#, root position | E | barred |
| 9-10-x-9-8-8 | 8th fret | C#, root position | B# | all fretted |
| 9-10-10-9-x-9 | 9th fret | C#, root position | C# | barred |
| x-x-11-12-13-12 | 11th fret | C#, root position | E | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 13 drop 2 and 3 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of C#mMaj7b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (F#) and the b13 (A).
What to play over C#mMaj7b5
Every note of C#mMaj7b5 is in C# diminished.
Chords near C#mMaj7b5
Change one note of C#mMaj7b5 and you have C#dim (drop the major seventh), C#dim7 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), C#maj7b5 (the minor third becomes a major third), C#m7b5 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh) or C#mMaj7 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth).
C#mMaj7b5 is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
On C#mMaj7b5’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.