Ab11 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 Ab11 — drop 2 voicings
Ab11 is Ab, Eb, Gb, Bb and Db — Ab9 with the eleventh added, and the third usually dropped.
It sounds suspended rather than tense. The eleventh sits a semitone above the major third, so the third is usually dropped; some shapes here keep it anyway.
Ab11 notes and formula
| Ab | Eb | Gb | Bb | Db |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 11 |
Dominant — but effectively a sus chord with a ninth.
Also written Ab9sus4 or Ab dominant 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ab11
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.
Ab11 has 25 of them, on the top four strings, the bottom four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: Ab in the bass, Eb in the bass, Gb in the bass, Bb in the bass and Db in the bass. The one to learn first is the Eb shape at the nut, 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 x31122 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Ab11 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 3 of the 5 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x31122 | 1st fret | C | Gb | all fretted |
| 444544 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Ab | barred |
| 666678 | 6th fret | Bb, 9th in the bass | C | barred |
| x-11-10-11-9-9 | 9th fret | Ab, root position | Db | all fretted |
| x-11-11-11-13-11 | 11th fret | Ab, root position | Eb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 17 drop 3 and 13 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Ab11
Ab11 is the V of Db, 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 Db.
In which keys. Every note of Ab11 belongs to C# major (the V), Eb minor (the iv), F# major (the ii), Ab minor (the i), Bb minor (the ♭VII) and B major (the vi).
What to play over Ab11
Every note of Ab11 is in Ab mixolydian, Ab dorian and Ab natural minor.
Chords near Ab11
Change one note of Ab11 and you have Abm9 (the fourth becomes a minor third), Abm11 (add the minor third), Ab7sus4 (drop the ninth) or Ab9 (the fourth becomes a major third).
Ab11 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On Ab11’s sound and use this page follows Barrie Nettles & Richard Graf, The Chord Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony (Advance Music, 1997). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.