C#mMaj9 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About C#mMaj9 — drop 2 voicings
C#mMaj9 is C#, E, G#, B# and D# — C#mMaj7 with the ninth added on top.
It sounds the same unease with more colour over it. The ninth softens the edge without resolving anything.
C#mMaj9 notes and formula
| C# | E | G# | B# | D# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Minor tonic — melodic minor, extended.
Also written C#mM9, C#m(maj9) or C#-Δ9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#mMaj9
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#mMaj9 has 7 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 9th — every inversion the chord has: C# in the bass, E in the bass, B# in the bass and D# in the bass. The one to learn first is the E shape at the nut.
3 of them sit on the top 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.
Start with x42540 — no barre and 1 open string. 3 of the 8 shapes here sit in open position. 4 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x41110 | open position | C#, root position | E | barred |
| x42540 | open position | C#, root position | E | 1 open string |
| x46540 | open position | C#, root position | G | 1 open string |
| 476544 | 4th fret | G#, 2nd inversion | G# | barred |
| 97x898 | 7th fret | C#, root position | B# | all fretted |
| 9-7-10-8-x-x | 7th fret | C#, root position | D# | all fretted |
| 9-11-10-9-9-11 | 9th fret | C#, root position | D# | barred |
| 11-11-11-13-13-12 | 11th fret | D#, 9th in the bass | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 5 drop 3 and 13 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of C#mMaj9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (F#) and the 13 (A#).
How to use C#mMaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#mMaj9 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#mMaj9
Every note of C#mMaj9 is in C# harmonic minor and C# melodic minor.
Chords near C#mMaj9
Change one note of C#mMaj9 and you have C#maj9 (the minor third becomes a major third), C#m69 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), C#m9 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh), C#mMaj7 (drop the ninth), C#mMaj11 (add the fourth) or C#madd9 (drop the major seventh).
C#mMaj9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On C#mMaj9’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.