Chord & FretC#m7 · Cavaquinho
C#m7 is C#m with its shoulders down: the same serious subject, told calmly. Give the audio below a listen and hear the change in tone of voice.
Listen first
What you just heard
The recipe: take the C#m you know — C#, E, G# — and add B on top. Now listen to the arpeggio, one note at a time and wait for the fourth note. It doesn't make the chord happy; it takes the weight off its shoulders. That's why bossa nova, neo-soul and the whole of R&B live here.
Now it's your hands' turn
On the cavaquinho, four steel strings tuned D–G–B–D pack the chord into a small, bright space — every finger counts. So start with the first position below — the position marked with ⭐ is the easiest to play. Four notes sharing the same space, so there's one rule: every single one has to ring. Play it slowly, listen for each voice. A muffled chord here is a double waste.
2 more shapes of this chord on the neck
Chord & Fret Pro maps over 200,000 voicings and inversions — hear and play them all.
Precision Tuner — Before you play these shapes, get in tune — chromatic tuner and reference tones · open in Chord & Fret
Mid-neck positions are the favorites of anyone backing a singer: they leave the treble free for the voice. File it away for that day.
Every shape of C#m7 lives in Chord & Fret Pro — 4 instruments, 16 tunings, 41 chord types and 57 scales, in every key. Start free. Unlock everything with Pro. 100% offline. No ads, no trackers.
Left-handed? Mirror's right here
What is C#m7?
C#m7: C# minor with Seventh. The notes are C#, E, G#, B (fixed-do: Do#, Mi, Sol#, Si) — the degrees 1–b3–5–b7.
Where this chord lives
Here's the backstage secret: C#m7's classic job is being the ii — the first piece of the ii–V–I, the most-used sentence in jazz and everything jazz ever touched. Across keys you'll find it as i7 in C# minor, v7 in F# minor, iv7 in G# minor. In other words: this chord is almost never standing still; it's setting something up.
Transpose & Capo — Need it in another key? Move the whole chart and find the easiest capo · use it in Chord & Fret
Identify Chord — Found a shape on your own fretboard? The app names it back · see it in Chord & Fret
Where it tends to go
Treating C#m7 as the home chord (I) of its key, it tends to go toward the pre-dominant (D#m / F#) or the dominant (G# / B#°) — and the dominant pulls back home. Typically, not a rule.
When you want to go further
For improvising, C# Dorian (C# D# E F# G# A# B · 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7: the minor scale with a major sixth — the minor that smirks); C# Aeolian (C# D# E F# G# A B · 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7: the natural minor, the major scale's relative sibling); C# Dorian ♭2 (C# D E F# G# A# B · 1 b2 b3 4 5 6 b7: a dorian with a lowered second) contain the whole chord. And the jazz shapes at the bottom are these same four notes rearranged across the neck: same chord, arranger's polish.
C# Dorian
4 more scale positions on the neck
That's over 35,000 mapped scale shapes in Chord & Fret Pro, ready to play.
The same C# Dorian in its main shapes along the neck — pick whichever position sits under your hand. The rings mark the guide notes (the 3rd and 7th) that carry this chord's color.
Improvising in context
To improvise over C#m7 as home, the C# Aeolian scale covers it whole — it contains every note of the chord. And when the dominant (G#) pulls back, the leading tone C is the note that wants to resolve home.
Swaps that work:
- Emaj7 — Relative major (♭III)
- Gb7 — It's the ii; resolves to this V
Reharmonize — Want richer substitutions? Reharmonize the progression in a tap · try it in Chord & Fret
The same chord, dressed for jazz
Jazz Lab — Drop 2, drop 3 and shell in any key — the Jazz Lab opens them all · open in Chord & Fret
Remember I said it's setting something up? This is it: F#7. Play C#m7 → F#7 and you've just built half a ii–V — the gear that's been turning jazz for a hundred years.