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C chords

C chords for guitar in different categories including major, minor and dominant chords.

C major

C

C major is often commonly referred to only C. The notes in the chord are C, E, G. The root note is placed on the 5th string. The presented fingering consists of a doubled root, a third and a fifth interval. All C Major chords

C minor

Cm

C minor is often abbreviated Cm. The notes in the chord are C, Eb, G. The root note is placed on the 5th string. A tip is to play this chord with a capo instead, for example capo 3: X35543. All Cm chords

C dominant 7th

C7

C dominant 7th is often abbreviated C7. The notes in the chord are C, E, G, Bb. The chord shape is also movable with the 1st string omitted.
All C7 chords

C major 7th

Cmaj7

C major 7th is often abbreviated Cmaj7. The notes in the chord are C, E, G, B. The root note is placed on the 5th string.
All Cmaj7 chords

C minor 7th

Cm7

C minor 7th is often abbreviated Cm7. The notes in the chord are C, Eb, G, Bb. The root note is placed on the 5th string. A tip is to play this chord with a capo instead, for example capo 3: X35343.
All Cm7 chords

C 6th

C6

C 6th is commonly written C6. The notes in the chord are C, E, G, A. The root note is placed on the 5th string. The 5th is omitted in the pictured chord version.

C minor 6th

Cm6

C minor 6th is often abbreviated Cm6. The notes in the chord are C, Eb, G, A. The pictured chord is a voicing and the root note is placed on the 2nd string.

C 9th

C9

C 9th is commonly written C9. The notes in the chord are C, E, G, Bb, D. The root note is placed on the 5th string. The chord can also be played with only four strings fretted as X3233X.

C major 9th

Cmaj9

C major 9th is often abbreviated Cmaj9. The notes in the chord are C, E, G, B, D. The 5th is omitted in the pictured chord version. An option with the 5th included is X35430.

C minor 9th

Cm9

C minor 9th is often abbreviated Cm9. The notes in the chord are C, Eb, G, Bb, D. The 5th is omitted in the pictured chord version.

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The notes in relationship to numbers

Concerning C chords, the numbers used in names are based on the position in the C major and minor scales. Here you can see these relationship.

With the help of this reference, you can see that C6 includes a A and C9 includes a D. By adding more chord categories, the degrees would tell that both Csus4 and C11 includes an F, but on different octaves. Dominant chords are not tonal in the way that C7 and C9 doesn't include a B, but a Bb (B flat).

You can see that Cm7 includes a Bb and Cm9 includes a D. An anomaly is the Cm6, which actually has a major 6th interval, which not is part of the C minor scale.

The relationship among chords

All chords are constructed with a C root note. Further on, the major chords include a major third whereas the minor chords include a minor third as the second note in the chord. The third note is a so-called perfect fifth. Besides that, some chords are extended with sixths, sevenths, ninths and so on.

Comments

C7: The pictured guitar version doesn’t include the fifth (G).
Cm7: The pictured guitar version doesn’t include the fifth (G).
C6: The pictured guitar version doesn’t include the fifth (G).
Cm6: The pictured guitar version have an alternative root (Eb), and could also be named Cm6/Eb.
Cmaj9: The pictured guitar version doesn’t include the fifth (G).

As notable, often the case here is that the fifth are excluded. This is alright since the instrument sometimes force omitted notes and the fifth are the least important note concerning the sound characteristic of the chords.

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