Cmaj7#11 — C major seventh sharp eleventh chord
A major seventh chord with the eleventh raised. The sharp eleventh is a tritone above the root, so the chord carries the lydian sound rather than the plain major one.
- 1 = C
- 3 = E
- 5 = G
- 7 = B
- #11 = F#
- Symbol
- Cmaj7#11
- Root
- C
- Quality
- Major seventh sharp eleventh
- Family
- altered
- Notes
- C E G B F#
- Degree formula
1 3 5 7 #11- Semitones from the root
0 4 6 7 11- Distinct pitch classes
- 5
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 4 semitones, 3 semitones, 4 semitones, 7 semitones
- Notation
- Written maj7#11. The tonic chord of the lydian mode, common in jazz and in impressionist harmony.
- Key
- C · C major / A minor key signature
Formula
The chord tones in order from the root, with the interval each one forms above it.
| Degree | Note | Semitones | Interval from the root |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 3 | E | 4 | Major third |
| 5 | G | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| 7 | B | 11 | Major seventh |
| #11 | F# | 6 | Tritone |
Inversions
An inversion is the same set of notes with a different one in the bass. The last column gives the distance of each note above the bass note, in semitones.
| Inversion | Bass note | Degree in the bass | Notes above the bass | Semitones above the bass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| root position | C | 1 | C – E – G – B – F# | 0 4 7 11 6 |
| first inversion | E | 3 | E – G – B – F# – C | 0 3 7 2 8 |
| second inversion | G | 5 | G – B – F# – C – E | 0 4 11 5 9 |
| third inversion | B | 7 | B – F# – C – E – G | 0 7 1 5 8 |
| fourth inversion | F# | #11 | F# – C – E – G – B | 0 6 10 1 5 |
Playable voicings
These shapes were found by searching the fretboard of a standard-tuned guitar (E A D G B E) rather than copied from a chord book. The search allows every string to sound or to be muted, rejects any shape with a muted string between two sounding strings, rejects any shape whose fretted notes span more than four frets (a five-fret window), requires every chord tone to be present, and then sorts what remains with root-position shapes first and the most compact, lowest shapes next. The shapes shown are the first six of that ordering; other orderings are possible at the same frets.
| # | Shape (low string first) | Notes | Degrees | Bass | Span (frets) | Sounding strings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8-9-9-9-8-8 | C F# B E G C | 1 #11 7 3 5 1 | C | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 8-9-9-9-8-7 | C F# B E G B | 1 #11 7 3 5 7 | C | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 8-7-5-5-7-7 | C E G C F# B | 1 3 5 1 #11 7 | C | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 8-10-9-9-7-7 | C G B E F# B | 1 5 7 3 #11 7 | C | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 8-9-10-9-8-7 | C F# C E G B | 1 #11 1 3 5 7 | C | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 8-10-9-9-7-8 | C G B E F# C | 1 5 7 3 #11 1 | C | 3 | 6 |
Shape numbers run from the lowest string to the highest, so the left-hand number is the sixth string (low E) in standard tuning. Multiple shapes are listed because a chord can be voiced several ways, and because a lower position is not always the better sounding one.
Related chords and scales
- KeyEverything in C
- ScaleC lydian
- ChordCmaj7
- ChordC
- ChordC7
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