Sevenths
F♯ major 7th chord
Lush and mellow — a signature sound of jazz, soul and bossa nova.
F♯maj7 is the Imaj7 chord in F♯ major and IVmaj7 in D♭ major. In minor keys: IIImaj7 in E♭ minor and VImaj7 in B♭ minor.
- Notes
- F♯A♯C♯E♯
- Formula
- 1357
- Built from
- root · major 3rd · perfect 5th · major 7th
How to play F♯maj7
About the F♯ major 7th chord
F♯maj7 is the IVmaj7 of C♯ and the Imaj7 of F♯ — dreamy and bright.
Playing it
There’s no open-string way to play F♯maj7 on guitar with the root in the bass, so the standard shape is a barre across the 2nd fret (243322).
On piano, F♯maj7 has three black keys (F♯, A♯ and C♯) and one white key.
On ukulele the usual F♯maj7 shape is 3524, using four fingers.
Related chords
Take away the root and the other three notes form A♯m (A♯ C♯ E♯) — so you can think of F♯maj7 as A♯m with F♯ added underneath.
Move a single note and F♯maj7 becomes a different chord: drop the E♯ for F♯, lower E♯ to E for F♯7, swap E♯ for D♯ for F♯6 and swap E♯ for G♯ for F♯add9.
Where you’ll hear it
You’ll find F♯maj7 in common progressions such as G♯m7–C♯7–F♯maj7 (the jazz cadence in F♯ major).
Notice the E♯ in F♯maj7 (F♯ A♯ C♯ E♯): each note of the chord takes its own letter (F–A–C–E), so the major 7th has to be written E♯ rather than F — the same key on a piano, spelled to fit the chord.
