The standard grips this chord is usually shown with.
F#m69 is F#, A, C#, D# and G# — F#m6 with the ninth added as well.
It sounds cool and entirely at rest. No seventh, so nothing leans: a common last chord of a minor tune.

| F# | A | C# | D# | G# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
Minor tonic — nothing in it is pulling.
Also written F#m6/9, F#min6/9 or F#-6/9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
F#m69 in root position puts F# in the bass, which is the chord as it is spelled: the note it is named after underneath everything else.
6 of F#m69’s 9 common shapes do this: 201122, 2x1224, 2x4244, xx4244, x9789x, 14-12-13-13-x-x.
Start with x9789x — no barre. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. 6 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 201122 | open position | F#, root position | F# | barred |
| 2x1224 | 1st fret | F#, root position | G# | barred |
| 2x4244 | 2nd fret | F#, root position | G# | barred |
| xx4244 | 2nd fret | F#, root position | G# | barred |
| x44244 | 2nd fret | C#, 2nd inversion | G# | barred |
| 544644 | 4th fret | A, 1st inversion | G# | barred |
| x9789x | 7th fret | F#, root position | G# | all fretted |
| 14-12-13-13-x-x | 12th fret | F#, root position | G# | all fretted |
| x-12-13-13-14-14 | 12th fret | A, 1st inversion | F# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 13 drop 2, 8 drop 3 and 13 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of F#m69, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (B).
How you get to it. The turn that lands on F#m69 is G#m7♭5 to C#7♭9: the ii and the V of F# minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of F#m69 belongs to C# minor (the iv, the subdominant) and E major (the ii, the supertonic).
Every note of F#m69 is in F# dorian and F# melodic minor.
Change one note of F#m69 and you have F#m6 (drop the ninth), F#m9 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh), F#mMaj9 (the sixth becomes a major seventh), F#madd9 (drop the sixth) or F#69 (the minor third becomes a major third).
F#m69 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On F#m69’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Piano Book (Sher Music, 1989). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.
Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.