Chord & FretG#maj7 · Cavaquinho
An empty café at ten in the morning, somebody drying cups, quiet music nobody chose but everybody approves of. That music is full of chords like G#maj7. Hit play below.
Listen first
What you just heard
Here's the curious part: G, the new note, lives a half step from G# — that close, it should grind. And it does. But C and D# hold the room, so the grind turns into shimmer instead of a fight. Go back to the audio and catch the arpeggio note by note all the way to the last note and wait: you'll feel the spark without the fire. It's danger with a seatbelt on — which is why it sounds expensive.
Now it's your hands' turn
On the cavaquinho, four steel strings tuned D–G–B–D pack the chord into a small, bright space — every finger counts. So go with the first position below; the position marked with ⭐ is the easiest to play. Then do the before-and-after: G#, then G#maj7. The second is the first one after sunset. Run it a few times: this chord tends to feel odd on the first pass and addictive by the third.
2 more shapes of this chord on the neck
Chord & Fret Pro maps 218,399 voicings and inversions — hear and play them all.
Precision Tuner — Before you play these shapes, get in tune — chromatic tuner and reference tones · open in Chord & Fret
The mid-neck positions are the favorites of anyone backing a singer: up there, a maj7 turns into carpet. File that away for the day you play with someone.
Left-handed? Mirror's right here
What is G#maj7?
G#maj7: G# Major with Major Seventh. The notes are G#, B#, D#, F## (fixed-do: Sol#, Si#, Re#, Fa##) — the degrees 1–3–5–7.
Where this chord lives
Across keys, G#maj7 works as IVmaj7 in D# major, Imaj7 in G# major — almost always the deluxe I or the elegant IV. It was bossa nova's signature and became the world's: today it shows up from jazz to indie without asking permission.
Transpose & Capo — Need it in another key? Move the whole chart and find the easiest capo · see it in Chord & Fret
Identify Chord — Found a shape on your own fretboard? The app names it back · try it in Chord & Fret
Where it tends to go
Treating G#maj7 as the home chord (I) of its key, it usually moves toward the pre-dominant (Bbm / Db) or the dominant (Eb / G°) — and the dominant pulls back home. It's a tendency, not a law.
When you want to go further
For improvising, G# Ionian (G# A# B# C# D# E# F## · 1 2 3 4 5 6 7: the plain major scale, where everything starts); G# Lydian (G# A# B# C## D# E# F## · 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7: the major scale with a raised fourth — one extra step of daydream); G# Lydian ♯2 (G# A## B# C## D# E# F## · 1 #2 3 #4 5 6 7: a lydian with a raised second, harmonic-major color) wrap the whole chord. And the jazz shapes at the end are the same four notes spread across the neck, for the day you want to sound like an arranger.
G# Ionian
4 more scale positions on the neck
Chord & Fret Pro maps 35,178 mapped scale shapes — hear and play them all.
The same G# Ionian in its main shapes along the neck — pick whichever position sits under your hand. The rings mark the guide notes (the 3rd and 7th) that carry this chord's color.
Scale — The whole scale on the neck — in boxes or three notes per string, with an exercise and a tempo ramp · open in Chord & Fret
Improvising in context
To improvise over G#maj7 as home, the G# Ionian scale fits entirely — it contains every note of the chord. And when the dominant (Eb) pulls back, the leading tone G is the note that wants to resolve home.
Swaps that work:
- Fm7Fm7Fm7Fm7 — Relative minor (vi) — same tonic function
- Cm7Cm7Cm7Cm7 — Mediant (iii) — tonic function
Reharmonize — Want richer substitutions? Reharmonize the progression in a tap · use it in Chord & Fret
If at some point you want the ground back, it's one click away: G# without the seventh. The house hasn't moved.
Every shape of G#maj7 lives in Chord & Fret Pro — 4 instruments, 16 tunings, 41 chord types and 57 scales, in every key. Start free. Unlock everything with Pro. Plays offline. Free to start, no card needed.