C#maj7 electric guitar chord

C#maj7 (C sharp major seventh) is built from C#, E#, G# and B#, the degrees 1–3–5–7. On electric guitar, the main shape is x 4 6 5 6 4, the first diagram, marked with the star.

An empty café at ten in the morning, somebody drying cups, quiet music nobody chose but everybody approves of. That music is full of chords like C#maj7. Give the audio below a listen.

Hear C#maj7 before you play

Why C#maj7 sounds this way

Here's the curious part: C, the new note, lives a half step from C# — that close, it should grind. And it does. But F and G# hold the room, so the grind turns into shimmer instead of a fight. Go back to the audio and catch the arpeggio note by note all the way to the last note and wait: you'll feel the spark without the fire. It's tension, domesticated — which is why it sounds expensive.

How to play C#maj7 on electric guitar

On the electric guitar a chord needs only a few clear notes — the amp sustains them and fills the space, so you mute the strings you are not playing and let the tone carry the rest. So go with the first position below; it's the main shape — that's why it carries the ⭐. Then do the before-and-after: C#, then C#maj7. The second is the first one after sunset. Repeat until it stops sounding "wrong" — for a lot of people this chord feels odd on the first listen and addictive by the third.

Precision Tuner: Get in tune before you play: chromatic tuner and reference tones, free in standard tuning · open in Chord and Fret

The mid-neck positions are the favorites of anyone backing a singer: up there, a maj7 turns into carpet. File that away for the day you play with someone.

C#maj7 notes and degrees

C#maj7 stacks the root C#, the major third E#, the perfect fifth G# and the major seventh B#.

Where C#maj7 shows up

Across keys, C#maj7 works as Imaj7 in C# major, IVmaj7 in G# major, IIImaj7 in A# minor — almost always the deluxe I or the elegant IV. Bossa nova made it a signature and the world copied it; today you hear this chord from jazz to indie pop without it asking permission.

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Where C#maj7 usually goes

Treating C#maj7 as the home chord (I) of its key, it usually moves toward the pre-dominant (D#m / F#) or the dominant (G# / B#°), and the dominant pulls back home. It's a tendency, not a law.

Going beyond C#maj7

For improvising, C# Ionian (C# D# E# F# G# A# B# · 1 2 3 4 5 6 7: the plain major scale, where everything starts); C# Lydian (C# D# E# F## G# A# B# · 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7: the major scale with a raised fourth — one extra step of daydream); C# Lydian ♯2 (C# D## E# F## G# A# B# · 1 #2 3 #4 5 6 7: a lydian with a raised second, harmonic-major color) wrap the whole chord. And the jazz shapes at the end are the same four notes spread across the neck, for the day you want to sound like an arranger.

Scales to improvise over C#maj7

To improvise over C#maj7 as home, the C# Ionian scale fits entirely: it contains every note of the chord. The best fit depends on the key, the surrounding chords and the tensions you want. And when the dominant (G#) pulls back, the leading tone C is the note that wants to resolve home.

Swaps that work:

• A#m7A#m7A#m7A#m7 — Relative minor (vi) — same tonic function
• Fm7Fm7Fm7Fm7 — Mediant (iii) — tonic function

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C#maj7 jazz voicings

Jazz Lab: Drop 2 voicings in any key, free; drop 3 and shell are part of Pro · try it in Chord and Fret

If at some point you want the ground back, it's one click away: C# without the seventh. The house hasn't moved.

Updated October 20, 2026