C# vs. C#maj?

[Azwethinkweizm]

i dont get what is different about C# and C#maj, id know the differen ce if it was something like C# vs. C#maj7 or 6 but wut is the difference between these

[MarkMyWordsXx]

nothing?

[lowb1970]

Originally Posted by Azwethinkweizm

i dont get what is different about C# and C#maj, id know the differen ce if it was something like C# vs. C#maj7 or 6 but wut is the difference between these

Not a thing sir!! The only difference would be if there was a qualifier in there for the 6th or 7th as you stated. "I'm not really telling you anything you didn't already know"!

[Mark Wilson]

Originally Posted by MarkMyWordsXx

nothing?

Er. Wrong.


When you see the chord "C#" it's generally treated as a Triad. So only three notes (C#, E#, G#) and when it's specified at C#maj7, it adds the 7th degree (C#, E#, G#, B#)

When you a chord as C#7, or Cdom7, it means it has a major 3rd, and flat 7th. (C#, E#, G#, B)

And, as you said, C#6, the 7th degree is replaced by the 6th. (C#, E#, G#, A#)


EDIT: Damnit! i wish I could read properly.
There's no difference.

[Liko]

Originally Posted by Mark Wilson

Er. Wrong.


When you see the chord "C#" it's generally treated as a Triad. So only three notes (C#, E#, G#) and when it's specified at C#maj7, it adds the 7th degree (C#, E#, G#, B#)

When you a chord as C#7, or Cdom7, it means it has a major 3rd, and flat 7th. (C#, E#, G#, B)

And, as you said, C#6, the 7th degree is replaced by the 6th. (C#, E#, G#, A#)


EDIT: Damnit! i wish I could read properly.
There's no difference.

I thinkyou noticed that was not the question. He knows the difference between C#maj and C#maj7, but was wondering if there was a difference between C# and C#maj. They are the same chord.

[Deacon_Blues]

I've always interpreted C#maj as a C#maj7 and a C# as a major triad, like a sus chord usually means sus4. Looks like I've been wrong in that assumption.

I miss a uniform standard on how to write chords. I did a quick check in my real books, fake books and similar, and I found that a major 7th chord can be written in at least all these ways:

maj7
MA7
M7
Δ
Δ7
7 (inside a circle)

However, I didn't find a single book that used "maj" only - either as a major triad or as a maj7. All books used only the root note in capital, (e.g. "C") to describe a major triad. In song books, I can't see a reason to write anything else than that either.

The only use I can see for writing C#maj instead of just C# is to point out that you mean a chord, for instance when you're discussing music theory here on TB. Or wait, it's used also if you want mean a C# maj scale.


Btw, I also found three ways to write a simple C minor triad: Cm, C- and CMI.

[Brad Maestas]

Yeah, Deacon. You're right on.

I remember being very confused at first in the discrepancies between some charts, especially by my peers' charts and also by Jamie Aebersold and the Real Book. Aebersold and most Fake Books seems to prefer the triangle shape for Major chords while the Real Books often have no appendix for their chords so a Major chord is written simply as "C#". You're right, spelling out the major part (or maj) is useful for discussions and in most lead sheets it's not used.

There were some Real Book charts that, if left uncorrected, had some of these types of inaccuracies. That initially lead me to believe that in some cases, a chord written as "C#maj" could be interpreted as C#maj7 but after noting that only a few charts were inaccurate in this specific way, I would just remember them for the next time I played them if I was looking at an uncorrected book. With all the corrections now applied in the newest Real Books, this is much less of a problem.

As a side note, some of my students have asked me about '5' chords, as in C#5. It's otherwise known as a power chord where the third is omitted and you get a neutral voicing that's neither major nor minor.