F#mMaj9 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#mMaj9 — drop 2 voicings
F#mMaj9 is F#, A, C#, E# and G# — F#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.
F#mMaj9 notes and formula
| F# | A | C# | E# | G# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Also written F#mM9, F#m(maj9) or F#-Δ9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F#mMaj9
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#mMaj9 has 9 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: F# in the bass, A in the bass, E# 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.
3 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 and E# (they fix the quality) 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#mMaj9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (B) or the 13 (D#).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 203121, open position, F#, root position, top note E#, 1 open string
- 243224, 2nd fret, F#, root position, top note G#, barred
- 444665, 4th fret, G#, 9th in the bass, top note A, barred
- x-9-7-10-9-x, 7th fret, F#, root position, top note G#, all fretted
- 9-12-11-10-9-9, 9th fret, C#, 2nd inversion, top note C#, barred
- 14-12-x-13-14-13, 12th fret, F#, root position, top note E#, all fretted
- 14-12-15-13-x-x, 12th fret, F#, root position, top note G#, all fretted
How to use F#mMaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on F#mMaj9 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.
What to play over F#mMaj9
Every note of F#mMaj9 is in F# harmonic minor and F# melodic minor.
Chords near F#mMaj9
Change one note of F#mMaj9 and you have F#maj9 (the minor third becomes the major third), F#m69 (the major seventh becomes the sixth), F#m9 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh), F#mMaj7 (drop the ninth), F#mMaj11 (add the eleventh) or F#madd9 (drop the major seventh).
F#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.