F#maj7 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 F#maj7 — drop 3 voicings
F#maj7 is F#, A#, C# and E# — F# with the major seventh added on top.
It sounds lush, and only just resolved. The everyday tonic of jazz, bossa and neo-soul.
F#maj7 notes and formula
| F# | A# | C# | E# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
Tonic — a resting chord, but a soft one.
Also written F#M7, F#Δ7, F#Δ, F#ma7 or F# major 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F#maj7
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.
F#maj7 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from the 2nd fret up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: F# in the bass, A# in the bass, C# in the bass and E# in the bass. The one to learn first is the C# shape at the 2nd fret.
5 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, 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 x-x-x-11-11-13 — no barre and only 3 fretted notes. None of the shapes for F#maj7 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 4 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 243322 | 2nd fret | F#, root position | F# | barred |
| xx4666 | 4th fret | F#, root position | A# | barred |
| x98666 | 6th fret | F#, root position | A# | barred |
| x-9-8-10-7-x | 7th fret | F#, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x-9-11-10-11-9 | 9th fret | F#, root position | C# | all fretted |
| x-x-x-11-11-13 | 11th fret | F#, root position | E# | all fretted |
| x-x-11-11-11-13 | 11th fret | C#, 2nd inversion | E# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 6 shell and 13 drop 2 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of F#maj7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (G#), the #11 (B#) and the 13 (D#).
How to use F#maj7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on F#maj7 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#maj7 belongs to C# major (the IV, the subdominant), Eb minor (the ♭III), F# major (the I, the tonic) and Bb minor (the ♭VI).
What to play over F#maj7
Every note of F#maj7 is in F# major and F# lydian.
Chords near F#maj7
Change one note of F#maj7 and you have F# (drop the major seventh), F#maj7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), F#maj7#5 (the fifth becomes a sharp fifth), F#maj9 (add the ninth), F#mMaj7 (the major third becomes a minor third) or F#add9 (the major seventh becomes a ninth).
F#maj7 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On F#maj7’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.