F#maj9 guitar chord
The root left to the bass player. Frees a finger for a tension.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About F#maj9 — rootless voicings
F#maj9 is F#, A#, C#, E# and G# — F#maj7 with the ninth stacked above it.
It sounds a maj7 with more air in it. The ninth argues with nothing here, so it works anywhere a maj7 does.
F#maj9 notes and formula
| F# | A# | C# | E# | G# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Tonic — an extended resting chord.
Also written F#M9, F#Δ9, F#ma9 or F# major 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F#maj9
Leave the root to the bass player. In a band nobody misses it, and the ear supplies it from the guide tones anyway.
The finger it frees goes to a tension, which is why these sound richer than the shape they came from rather than thinner.
F#maj9 has 14 of them, on the middle four strings, the top four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: A# in the bass, C# in the bass, E# in the bass and G# in the bass. The one to learn first is the A# shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the middle 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 xx3324 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for F#maj9 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 7 of the 12 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 213121 | 1st fret | F#, root position | E# | barred |
| 243324 | 2nd fret | F#, root position | G# | all fretted |
| xx3324 | 2nd fret | E#, 3rd inversion | G# | all fretted |
| xx4364 | 3rd fret | F#, root position | G# | all fretted |
| 644664 | 4th fret | A#, 1st inversion | G# | barred |
| x96666 | 6th fret | F#, root position | A# | barred |
| x-9-8-10-9-x | 8th fret | F#, root position | G# | all fretted |
| 9-9-8-10-9-x | 8th fret | C#, 2nd inversion | G# | barred |
| x-11-11-11-11-13 | 11th fret | G#, 9th in the bass | E# | barred |
| x-x-11-13-11-13 | 11th fret | C#, 2nd inversion | E# | all fretted |
| 14-11-11-11-11-13 | 11th fret | F#, root position | E# | barred |
| 14-13-15-13-14-13 | 13th fret | F#, root position | E# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 13 drop 2 and 8 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of F#maj9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (B#) and the 13 (D#).
How to use F#maj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on F#maj9 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#maj9 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#maj9
Every note of F#maj9 is in F# major and F# lydian.
Chords near F#maj9
Change one note of F#maj9 and you have F#maj7 (drop the ninth), F#maj11 (add the fourth), F#maj13 (add the sixth), F#mMaj9 (the major third becomes a minor third), F#add9 (drop the major seventh) or F#69 (the major seventh becomes a sixth).
F#maj9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On F#maj9’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.