Amaj13 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Amaj13 — uncommon 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. Everything the major scale offers except the eleventh, which is left out because it fights the third.
Tonic — the major sound with most of the scale showing.
Amaj13 notes and formula
| A | C# | E | G# | B | F# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
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
Six notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep C# and G# (they fix the quality) and F# and B (what the symbol is about). Let E and A go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play Amaj13 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (D#).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x02122, open position, A, root position, top note F#, barred
- 544454, 4th fret, A, root position, top note G#, barred
- 556675, 5th fret, A, root position, top note A, barred
- x06677, 6th fret, A, root position, top note B, 1 open string
- x97799, 7th fret, F#, 13th in the bass, top note C#, barred
- x-12-11-11-9-9, 9th fret, A, root position, top note C#, all fretted
- x-12-9-11-9-9, 9th fret, A, root position, top note C#, barred
- x-12-12-13-14-14, 12th fret, A, root position, top note F#, all fretted
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.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Amaj13 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Amaj13
Change one note of Amaj13 and you have Amaj9 (drop the thirteenth), Amaj11 (the thirteenth becomes the eleventh), A69 (drop the major seventh) or A13 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh).
Amaj13 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.