Gmaj7#5 guitar chord
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. Because it costs no finger, it sounds a note the closed shape has none left for -- a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath. Either a familiar grip with open strings added, or a shape so sparse the open strings carry the chord. These belong to their key rather than to a shape, so D, A, G and E have many and Eb a handful.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About Gmaj7#5 — open string voicings
Gmaj7#5 is G, B, D# and F# — Gmaj7 with the fifth raised a semitone.
It sounds weightless, with no pull in it. Unlike an aug7 there is no flat seventh dragging it anywhere, so it colours a tonic rather than replacing it with a dominant.
Gmaj7#5 notes and formula
| G | B | D# | F# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 | 7 |
Tonic — the lydian augmented sound.
Also written GM7#5, GΔ7#5, G+M7 or Gmaj7(#5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gmaj7#5
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. It costs no finger, so it can sound a note the closed shape has none left for: a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath.
These belong to their key rather than to a shape: they cannot be moved up the neck. D, A, G and E have many; E♭ has a handful.
Gmaj7#5 has 2 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2-1 and the middle four strings, from the 3rd fret up to the 4th — every inversion the chord has: G in the bass and D# in the bass. The one to learn first is the D# shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx1002 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 1 of the 8 needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx1002 | open position | D#, 2nd inversion | F# | 2 open strings |
| 3x4443 | 3rd fret | G, root position | G | barred |
| xx5442 | 2nd fret | G, root position | F# | all fretted |
| xx5877 | 5th fret | G, root position | B | all fretted |
| x-10-9-8-7-7 | 7th fret | G, root position | B | all fretted |
| x-10-9-11-x-11 | 9th fret | G, root position | D# | all fretted |
| x-10-13-11-12-x | 10th fret | G, root position | B | all fretted |
| x-x-13-12-12-14 | 12th fret | D#, 2nd inversion | F# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 2 shell, 14 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Gmaj7#5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (A), the #11 (C#) and the 13 (E).
How to use Gmaj7#5
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Gmaj7#5 is Am7 to D7 — the ii and the V of G — and D7 shares its third and seventh with Am7, so the hand barely moves between them.
Chords near Gmaj7#5
Change one note of Gmaj7#5 and you have Gmaj7 (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), Gmaj7b5 (the sharp fifth becomes a flat fifth), Gaug (drop the major seventh), Gaug7 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh) or G/F# (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth).
Gmaj7#5 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Gmaj7#5’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.