Am11 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 Am11 — rootless voicings
Am11 is A, C, E, G, B and D — Am9 with the eleventh added on top.
It sounds spacious and slightly unresolved. The eleventh is a whole step above the minor third, so unlike its major counterpart it fits without a fight.
Am11 notes and formula
| A | C | E | G | B | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 11 |
Pre-dominant or minor tonic — it hangs rather than moves.
Also written Amin11, A-11 or A minor 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Am11
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.
Am11 has 25 of them, on the middle four strings, the top four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position 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 D in the bass. The one to learn first is the B shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
9 of them sit on the middle 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 x00010 — no barre and 4 open strings. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 6 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x00010 | open position | A, root position | E | 4 open strings |
| 535433 | 3rd fret | A, root position | G | barred |
| 5x553x | 3rd fret | A, root position | D | barred |
| 555557 | 5th fret | A, root position | B | barred |
| xx7788 | 7th fret | A, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-12-10-12-10-10 | 10th fret | A, root position | D | barred |
| x-12-10-12-12-10 | 10th fret | A, root position | D | barred |
| x-12-12-12-13-12 | 12th fret | A, root position | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 7 shell, 15 drop 2, 10 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Am11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (F#).
How to use Am11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Am11 is Bm7♭5 to E7♭9: the ii and the V of A minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Am11 belongs to C major (the vi, the submediant), E minor (the iv, the subdominant), G major (the ii, the supertonic) and A minor (the i, the tonic).
What to play over Am11
Every note of Am11 is in A dorian and A natural minor.
Chords near Am11
Change one note of Am11 and you have Am9 (drop the fourth), AmMaj11 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh) or A11 (drop the minor third).
Am11 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Am11’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.