Cmaj7 piano chord, C major 7th notes and fingering.

The Cmaj7 piano chord is C major 7th: C, E, G and B. It is the C major triad with the major seventh (B) added on top, eleven semitones above the root and a single semitone below the next C. Chord charts write it as Cmaj7, CMaj7 or CM7.

How to play Cmaj7 on piano

1. Find C on the keyboard. C is the white key just left of the pair of black keys.
2. With your right hand, put finger 1 on C, finger 2 on E, finger 3 on G and finger 5 on B. Finger 1 is the thumb.
3. Press all four keys together. In root position they run from C4 to B4, a reach of 11 semitones. Play chord sounds them together and Arpeggio sounds them one by one, from the bottom up.
4. Click Left hand to see the left hand. It plays C3 to B3, one octave lower: C with finger 5, E with finger 3, G with finger 2, B with finger 1.
5. The cards under the keyboard hold the four positions, with C, E, G and B at the bottom in turn. Play and Arpeggio on a card play that position.
6. Open Note names. Every note of this chord is a white key, so the Sharps and Flats choices show the same names.

How Cmaj7 is built

Counted from the root, the formula is 0, 4, 7, 11. Stacked on each other the gaps are 4 + 3 + 4: a major third, a minor third and another major third. The seventh (B) sits one semitone under the next C, so the top and the root rub together very gently. That small clash gives the chord its soft, spacious sound.

Worked example: the pitch of C4. On a piano tuned to A4 = 440 Hz, a note 9 semitones below A4 has the frequency 440 × 2^(-9/12), which is about 261.63 Hz. E4 is 5 semitones below A4, so 440 × 2^(-5/12) gives about 329.63 Hz.

What the keys look like under your hand

The black key nearest C is C# on its right. On its left there is none, because B and C are only a semitone apart. All four notes are white keys (C, E, G and B), so the hand can stay flat and there is no reaching for a black key. The thumb (C) and little finger (B) are both on white keys here, so the hand can lie in its natural shape.

Cmaj7 inversions and fingering

Cmaj7 has four positions. In root position C is at the bottom. In the first inversion, E is at the bottom and the chord is written Cmaj7/E. In the second inversion, G is at the bottom and the chord is written Cmaj7/G. In the third inversion, B is at the bottom and the chord is written Cmaj7/B. The tightest reach, 8 semitones from the lowest key to the highest, is the first inversion and third inversion. The widest, at 11, is the root position.

The keys that hold Cmaj7

Cmaj7 fits four of the major and natural minor keys that have a standard key signature, which means every note of it comes from that key's scale. The simplest is C major, with no sharps or flats, where it is chord Imaj7.

Progressions that use Cmaj7, with the chord numbers and the chords in that key:

• C major: Imaj7-V7-vi7-IVmaj7, which is Cmaj7, G7, Am7, Fmaj7, the four-chord loop heard in a great deal of pop.
• A minor: i7-IIImaj7-VII7-iv7, which is Am7, Cmaj7, G7, Dm7, a loop that climbs to III and VII.
• G major: Imaj7-IVmaj7-V7-Imaj7, which is Gmaj7, Cmaj7, D7, Gmaj7, the three-chord cadence of folk, rock and blues.

Here is a worked example in C major. The chord before Cmaj7 in the first progression above is Fmaj7 (F, A, C and E). From Fmaj7 in root position, the closest way to reach Cmaj7 is its second inversion (G, B, C and E, lowest note first): two notes stay where they are, and the others move 4 semitones in total, counting each note against the note in the same place from the bottom.

What Cmaj7 sounds like

Major 7th chords sound soft, warm and a little dreamy. They are at home in jazz, soul, bossa nova, lo-fi and ballads, and they do not need to resolve the way a dominant 7th does, so they can sit at the end of a phrase.

Cmaj7 is the Imaj7 chord in C major, the IIImaj7 chord in A minor and the IVmaj7 chord in G major.

A common mistake with Cmaj7

A common mistake is pressing Bb instead of B on top, one semitone lower than the seventh of Cmaj7. That gives C7 (C, E, G and Bb), a dominant 7th with a tense sound. The top note of Cmaj7 should be the one right below the next C.

Cmaj7 on white keys only

Cmaj7 is made of C, E, G and B, all white keys, so nothing about the black keys gets in the way. It is one of the best places to hear what a major 7th chord sounds like, because there are no other changes to listen past.

Compare it with C7, which has Bb in place of B, a black key under the finger instead of the white key beside it. The one-semitone move from B down to Bb is the whole difference between a calm Cmaj7 and a tense C7. Play one, then open the C7 page and play the other, and listen to how the top note changes the mood.

The top three notes of Cmaj7, E, G and B, are an E minor triad. If you play the left hand on C and the right hand on E minor, you hear Cmaj7 built from two simple parts. This is a handy way to remember the chord and to voice it in a band, where the bass player holds the C.

Chords to learn next

Chords close to Cmaj7: C major (the same chord without the seventh; shares C, E and G); C7 (a flat seventh instead; shares C, E and G); Am7 (shares three notes with it); Cm7 (a minor third instead; shares C and G).

Once Cmaj7 feels easy, play it and then C7 to hear what the flat seventh does. For chords beyond these six types, and for guitar and ukulele shapes, use the chord finder. To play along with your computer keys, open the virtual piano. The piano chords page lists all 72 chords.