A13 guitar chord
The root left to the bass player. Frees a finger for a tension.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About A13 — rootless voicings
A13 is A, C#, E, G, B and F# — A9 with the thirteenth added on top.
It sounds big and open. Six notes will not fit under four fingers: the fifth goes first, then the ninth, and the third, flat seventh and thirteenth stay.
A13 notes and formula
| A | C# | E | G | B | F# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 13 |
Dominant — the full V chord.
Also written Adom13 or A dominant 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play A13
Leave the root to the bass player. In a band nobody misses it, and the ear supplies it from the guide tones anyway.
The finger it frees goes to a tension, which is why these sound richer than the shape they came from rather than thinner.
A13 has 26 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from the 2nd fret up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: C# in the bass, E in the bass, G in the bass, B in the bass and F# in the bass. The one to learn first is the F# shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
9 of them sit on the top four strings, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with 544030 — no barre and 2 open strings. 2 of the 9 shapes here sit in open position. 7 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x02022 | open position | A, root position | F# | barred |
| 524223 | 2nd fret | A, root position | G | barred |
| 544030 | open position | A, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| 544453 | 3rd fret | A, root position | G | barred |
| 555677 | 5th fret | A, root position | B | barred |
| 575675 | 5th fret | A, root position | A | barred |
| x-12-11-12-14-14 | 11th fret | A, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x-12-11-12-12-14 | 11th fret | A, root position | F# | barred |
| 12-12-12-12-14-14 | 12th fret | E, 2nd inversion | F# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 12 drop 2, 9 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of A13, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (D#).
How to use A13
A13 is the V of D, and that is where it goes if it goes anywhere: the third and the flat seventh are a tritone apart, and both resolve by a semitone into D.
Voice by voice, A13 → D. 2 voices move by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In A13 | Moves | In D |
|---|---|---|
| A, the root | stays where it is | A, the fifth |
| C#, the major third | rises a semitone | D, the root |
| E, the fifth | falls a whole tone | D, the root |
| G, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | F#, the major third |
| B, the ninth | falls a whole tone | A, the fifth |
| F#, the thirteenth | stays where it is | F#, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of A13 belongs to D major (the V, the dominant) and B minor (the ♭VII).
What to play over A13
Every note of A13 is in A mixolydian and A lydian dominant.
Chords near A13
Change one note of A13 and you have Amaj13 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), A69 (drop the flat seventh), A9 (drop the sixth) or A9#11 (the sixth becomes a flat fifth).
A13 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On A13’s sound and use this page follows Ted Pease & Ken Pullig, Modern Jazz Voicings (Berklee Press, 2001). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.