A9#11 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About A9#11 — shell voicings
A9#11 is A, C#, E, G, B and D# — A9 with the raised eleventh added on top.
It sounds wide and glassy, bright rather than tense. The ♯11 clears the major third by a whole step, so it adds height without the collision a natural eleventh makes.
A9#11 notes and formula
| A | C# | E | G | B | D# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | ♯11 |
Dominant — the lydian dominant sound.
Also written A9(#11), A9+11 or A9♯11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play A9#11
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
A9#11 has 9 of them, on the bottom four strings, the middle four strings, the top four strings, strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from the 2nd fret up to the 11th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the A shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with x01020 — no barre and 3 open strings. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 3 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x01020 | open position | A, root position | E | 3 open strings |
| 545445 | 4th fret | A, root position | A | barred |
| 5x564x | 4th fret | A, root position | D# | all fretted |
| 565655 | 5th fret | A, root position | A | barred |
| xx7889 | 7th fret | A, root position | C# | all fretted |
| x-12-11-12-12-11 | 11th fret | A, root position | D# | barred |
| x-12-13-12-14-x | 12th fret | A, root position | C# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 13 rootless and 3 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of A9#11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b13 (F) and the 13 (F#).
How to use A9#11
A9#11 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at D — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
Voice by voice, A9#11 → D. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In A9#11 | 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 |
| D#, the sharp eleventh | falls a semitone | D, the root |
What to play over A9#11
Every note of A9#11 is in A lydian dominant.
Chords near A9#11
Change one note of A9#11 and you have A9 (drop the flat fifth), A9b5 (drop the fifth) or A13 (the flat fifth becomes a sixth).
A9#11 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On A9#11’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.