C# Major Chord on Guitar, Piano and Ukulele – How to Play the C sharp

The C# major chord is built from a root note (C#), a major third (E#), and a perfect fifth (G#):

C# chord [Musical explanation]

The C# major chord is a major triad with formula 1 – 3 – 5. Therefore, to build it we need C# (1), E# (3), G# (5):

This is due to the fact that a major chord is made up of 2 third intervals:

If we apply this principle to the C# chord we obtain that:

Thus, this confirms that the C# major chord is defined by:

Root (C#) – Major Third (E#) – Perfect Fifth (G#)

C# Guitar Chord

The C# major chord guitar has the following shape on the fretboard:

Let’s analyze in detail this chord diagram above to make sure that we understand how to play the C# on guitar. To do that we will start by analyzing the 3 circles in blue, which indicate that on the strings 4 (D), 3 (G) and 2 (B) we have to place the fingers 2 (middle), 3 (ring finger) and 4 (pinky). In this case we have a barre chord, so we have to use as well the index finger (1) to press down the strings from 5 to 1.

Note by the way the number 4 in black on the left that indicates on which fret we start playing the chord.

On the other hand, at the top we see that we have the characters:

X  C#  G#  C#  E# G#

This simply means that in the:

And at the bottom we find the numbers:

1  5  1  3 5

This indicates that in the:

⚠️ Important: it is not mandatory to memorize all this information to play the C# chord on guitar. But it is highly recommended to know it in order to understand the musical theory behind each chord.

Other ways to play the C# guitar chord

In addition to the diagram shown at the beginning of the article, we can also find the C# chord in the following fretboard positions:

C# major triad chords and inversions

Triads

First Inversion (C#/E#)

Second Inversion (C#/G#)

C# Ukulele Chord

Here you can see as well the C# uke chord diagram:

C# Piano Chord

To play the C# chord on piano we only need to find the same music notes on its keys:

Music scales in which the C# major chord can be found

• C# major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • C# D#m E#m F# G# A#m B#dim
• F# major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • F# G#m A#m B C# D#m E#dim
• G# major scale (harmonized with triads)
  • G# A#m B#m C# D# E#m Gdim
• A# minor natural scale (harmonized with triads)
  • A#m B#dim C# D#m E#m F# G#
• E# natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • E#m F##dim G# A#m Bm C# D#
• D# natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • D#m E#dim F# G#m A#m B C#
• F# harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • F#m G#dim Aaug Bm C# D E#dim
• E# harmonic minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • E#m Gdim G#aug A#m B# C# Edim
• F# natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • F#m G#m Aaug B C D#dim E#dim
• G# natural minor scale (harmonized with triads)
  • G#m A#m Baug C# D# E#dim Gdim

C# Major Chord PDF

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