C#7 Chord on Ukulele
C#7 = C# – F – G# – B (Root, Major 3rd, Perfect 5th, Minor 7th)
C#7 borrows C# major's three-string barre at the first fret wholesale and only changes the fourth string: instead of the pinky's stretch to the A string's fourth fret, the ring or middle finger drops much closer, onto the second fret, to bring in the flatted seventh. That's a genuinely smaller reach than the major chord needs, which makes C#7 slightly easier under the hand even though a seventh chord usually implies more complexity, not less.
As a dominant seventh, C#7 wants to resolve — its flatted seventh forms a tritone with the chord's third that pulls the ear toward F# major, making C#7-to-F# the V7-I cadence in that key. It's also encountered respelled as Db7, resolving to Gb, in ukulele charts transposed down from horn or piano arrangements written in flat keys. Compared to the plain C# major triad, the added seventh gives the chord a sharper, more urgent character — genuinely a different color, not merely a busier version of the same chord.
Fingerings
Open Position
How to Practice It
Since the barre is identical to C# major's, the whole exercise is really about the fourth string: practice switching only the A string's finger between the fourth fret (major) and the second fret (dominant seventh), leaving the barre completely undisturbed, to isolate exactly what changes the chord's function. The C#7-to-F# resolution is worth playing slowly and repeatedly, listening for how the tritone inside the chord physically wants to close inward once F# arrives.
Common Progressions
- V7 - I (C#7 - F#)
- Respelled Db7 - Gb, the same cadence in flat-key notation
- I - IV - V7 (F# - B - C#7), setting up a return to F#
- A brief C#7 tension chord inside a C#-major-leaning passage before resolving back home.
FAQ
- How does C#7 differ physically from plain C# major?
- Only the A string changes — the pinky's fourth-fret reach for the major triad's doubled root is replaced by a much closer second-fret note for the flatted seventh, with the three-string barre staying completely unchanged.
- Why does C#7 resolve so strongly to F#?
- The interval between the chord's third and its flatted seventh is a tritone, the most unstable interval in Western harmony, and F# major is where that instability finally settles — the defining engine behind any V7-I cadence.
- Is C#7 the same as Db7?
- Yes, enharmonically identical — Db7 resolving to Gb is the more commonly seen spelling in ukulele charts adapted from flat-key horn or piano material.
- Is C#7 easier or harder than C# major?
- Slightly easier, in fact — the seventh chord's fourth-string note sits much closer to the barre than the major triad's pinky stretch does, a rare case where the seventh chord is the gentler shape.
- What style of music uses C#7 the most?
- Jazz-influenced and horn-transcribed ukulele arrangements reach for it (usually as Db7) far more than folk or pop material, which tends to stay in sharp-free or lightly-sharped keys.
- Does C#7 share any notes with C# major?
- All three triad tones carry over unchanged, with the flatted seventh as the sole new addition — so a chart can swap C#7 in wherever plain C# is written, gaining a moment of extra pull without the substitution sounding like an unrelated chord.
- Does C#7 ever function outside a straightforward V7-I role?
- Yes — as a secondary dominant, it can briefly precede F#m rather than F# major in a minor-key context, or serve as a tritone-substitution target for G7 in more adventurous jazz reharmonizations, though both uses are rarer than its plain V7-I role.
- How does the tritone inside C#7 actually sound if played alone?
- Strumming just the E and A strings' fretted notes together isolates that interval — F and B, a half-octave apart — which sounds genuinely unsettled on its own, making it easy to hear exactly what's pulling the full chord toward F#.
- Is C#7 a realistic chord for a beginner, or strictly an intermediate one?
- It's approachable for anyone already comfortable with the plain C# major barre, since the only new skill is a shorter reach on the fourth string — genuinely one of the gentler introductions to sharp-key dominant sevenths.
- Would this chord ever be notated as a slash chord in a lead sheet?
- Not typically — since all four of its notes belong cleanly to a standard dominant seventh built on C#, there's no unusual bass note that would call for slash notation the way an inversion or borrowed bass tone might.
C#7 on other instruments: C#7 on Guitar, C#7 on Piano. Related: how chords are built, chord finder.