C♭maj7 Chord on Guitar, Piano and Ukelele | How to Play it

The C♭ major 7th chord (C♭maj7) is built from a root note (C♭), a major third (E♭), a perfect fifth (G♭) and a major seventh (B♭):

C♭maj7 chord [Musical explanation]

The C♭ major seventh chord is a tetrad with formula 1 – 3 – 5 – 7. Therefore, to build it we need C♭ (1), E♭ (3), G♭ (5) and B♭ (7):

This is due to the fact that a major seventh chord is made up of 3 third intervals:

If we apply this principle to the C♭maj7 chord we obtain that:

Thus, this confirms that C♭ major seventh chord is defined by:

Root (C♭) – Major Third (E♭) – Perfect Fifth (G♭) – Major Seventh (B♭)

To sum up, in order to build the C♭maj7 chord we need to add the major seventh (7th) to the C♭ major chord.

C♭maj7 Guitar Chord

The C♭maj7 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♭maj7 on guitar.

Let’s start by analyzing the 3 circles in blue, which indicate that on the strings 5 (A) and 4 (D) we have to place the fingers 3 (ring finger) and 2 (middle). In this case we need to play 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 2 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♭  E♭  B♭  E♭ B♭

This simply means that in the:

And at the bottom we find the numbers:

1  3 5  7  3

This indicates that in the:

⚠️ Important: it is not mandatory to memorize all this information to play the C♭maj7 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♭ major 7 guitar chord

In addition to the diagram shown at the beginning of the article, we can also find the C♭maj7 chord in the following fretboard positions:

C♭maj7 chord inversions

The 3 inversions of the C major 7th chord are:

C♭maj7 Ukulele Chord

Here you can see as well the C♭maj7 uke chord diagram:

C♭maj7 Piano Chord

To play the C♭maj7 chord on piano we only need to find the same music notes on its keys:

Third Inversión (C♭maj7/B♭)

Music scales in which the C♭ major 7th chord can be found

• C♭ major scale (harmonized with 7th chords)
  • C♭maj7 D♭m7 E♭m7 F♭maj7 G♭7 A♭m7 B♭m7♭5
• G♭ major scale (harmonized with 7th chords)
  • G♭maj7 A♭m7 B♭m7 C♭maj7 D♭7 E♭m7 G♭♭m7♭5
• A♭ natural minor scale (harmonized with 7th chords)
  • A♭m7 B♭m7♭5 C♭maj7 D♭m7 E♭m7 F♭maj7 G♭7
• E♭ natural minor scale (harmonized with 7th chords)
  • E♭m7 G♭♭m7♭5 G♭maj7 A♭m7 B♭m7 C♭maj7 D♭7
• E♭ harmonic minor scale (harmonized with 7th chords)
  • E♭m(maj7) Fm7♭5 G♭maj7#5 A♭m7 B♭7 C♭maj7 E♭♭dim7

C♭maj7 Chord PDF

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