Amaj13 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Amaj13 — drop 2 voicings
Amaj13 is A, C#, E, G#, B and F# — Amaj9 with the thirteenth on top, and the eleventh left out.
It sounds full and wide open. Six notes into four fingers means something goes: keep the third, the seventh and the thirteenth.
Amaj13 notes and formula
| A | C# | E | G# | B | F# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
Tonic — the major sound with most of the scale showing.
Also written AM13, AΔ13 or A major 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Amaj13
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
Amaj13 has 12 of them, on the top four strings, the bottom four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: A in the bass, C# in the bass, G# 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.
4 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 x06677 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 5 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x02122 | open position | A, root position | F# | barred |
| 544454 | 4th fret | A, root position | G# | barred |
| 556675 | 5th fret | A, root position | A | barred |
| x06677 | 6th fret | A, root position | B | 1 open string |
| x97799 | 7th fret | F#, 13th in the bass | C# | barred |
| x-12-11-11-9-9 | 9th fret | A, root position | C# | all fretted |
| x-12-9-11-9-9 | 9th fret | A, root position | C# | barred |
| x-12-12-13-14-14 | 12th fret | A, root position | F# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 9 drop 3, 26 rootless and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Amaj13, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (D#).
How to use Amaj13
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Amaj13 is Bm7 to E7 — the ii and the V of A — and E7 shares its third and seventh with Bm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Amaj13 belongs to C# minor (the ♭VI), E major (the IV, the subdominant), F# minor (the ♭III) and A major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Amaj13
Every note of Amaj13 is in A major and A lydian.
Chords near Amaj13
Change one note of Amaj13 and you have Amaj9 (drop the sixth), Amaj11 (the sixth becomes a fourth), A69 (drop the major seventh) or A13 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh).
Amaj13 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Amaj13’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.