C#mMaj9 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#mMaj9 — uncommon 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.
Minor tonic — melodic minor, extended.
C#mMaj9 notes and formula
| C# | E | G# | B# | D# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
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
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#mMaj9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (F#) or the 13 (A#).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x41110, open position, C#, root position, top note E, barred
- x42540, open position, C#, root position, top note E, 1 open string
- x46540, open position, C#, root position, top note G, 1 open string
- 476544, 4th fret, G#, 2nd inversion, top note G#, barred
- 97x898, 7th fret, C#, root position, top note B#, all fretted
- 9-7-10-8-x-x, 7th fret, C#, root position, top note D#, all fretted
- 9-11-10-9-9-11, 9th fret, C#, root position, top note D#, barred
- 11-11-11-13-13-12, 11th fret, D#, 9th in the bass, top note E, barred
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.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where C#mMaj9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near C#mMaj9
Change one note of C#mMaj9 and you have C#maj9 (the minor third becomes the major third), C#m69 (the major seventh becomes the sixth), C#m9 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh), C#mMaj7 (drop the ninth), C#mMaj11 (add the eleventh) or C#madd9 (drop the major seventh).
C#mMaj9 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.