F#69 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 F#69 — drop 2 voicings
F#69 is F#, A#, C#, D# and G# — F#6 with the ninth added as well.
It sounds wide and entirely at rest. The modern way to voice a tonic when a triad is too bare and a maj7 too pointed.
Tonic — it commits to nothing.
F#69 notes and formula
| F# | A# | C# | D# | G# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
Also written F#6/9, F#6add9 or F# six nine. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F#69
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.
F#69 has 13 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: F# in the bass, A# in the bass, D# in the bass and G# in the bass. The one to learn first is the F# shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the bottom 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.
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep A# (it fixes the quality) and D# and G# (what the symbol is about). Let C# and F# go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play F#69 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (B#).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 211122, 1st fret, F#, root position, top note F#, barred
- xx4344, 3rd fret, F#, root position, top note G#, barred
- x44344, 3rd fret, C#, 2nd inversion, top note G#, barred
- x66676, 6th fret, D#, 6th in the bass, top note A#, barred
- x96876, 6th fret, F#, root position, top note A#, all fretted
- x98899, 8th fret, F#, root position, top note C#, barred
- x-11-11-11-11-11, 11th fret, G#, 9th in the bass, top note D#, barred
- 14-13-13-13-14-14, 13th fret, F#, root position, top note F#, barred
How to use F#69
How you get to it. The turn that lands on F#69 is G#m7 to C#7 — the ii and the V of F# — and C#7 shares its third and seventh with G#m7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of F#69 belongs to C# major (the IV), Eb minor (the ♭III), F# major (the I), Ab minor (the ♭VII), Bb minor (the ♭VI) and B major (the V).
What to play over F#69
F#69 is every note of the F# major pentatonic, and nothing else. It also sits inside F# major, F# lydian, F# mixolydian and F# lydian dominant.
Chords near F#69
Change one note of F#69 and you have F#maj9 (the sixth becomes the major seventh), F#maj13 (add the major seventh), F#m69 (the major third becomes the minor third), F#add9 (drop the sixth), F#6 (drop the ninth) or F#9 (the sixth becomes the flat seventh).
F#69 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.