Ab9#11 guitar chord

1st inversion · C in the bass
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About Ab9#11

Ab9#11 answers a naming puzzle: sounds like a flat fifth, yet the natural fifth remains present. The notes are Ab, C, Eb, Gb, Bb and D.

The symbol therefore describes an added raised fourth above , not a fifth that has been replaced. A voicing should make that distinction audible.

Over a major 7th instead of the flat 7th, and with no 5th, the same sharp 11th gives .

Also written Ab9(#11), Ab9+11 or Ab9♯11.

Ab9#11 guitar chord diagram: Ab, C, Eb, Gb, Bb, D, played x-x-10-11-11-10
Ab9#11 guitar chord voicing: x-x-10-11-11-10.

How to use Ab9#11

Ab9#11 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at — harder than a plain seventh does. A plain dominant has two voices a semitone from home; an altered one has four, because every altered tone is also sitting a semitone from a note of Db. More voices leaning the same way is all "more tension" means here.

What to play over Ab9#11

Useful scales

Every scale

Chords near Ab9#11

Change one note

Altered dominant 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.

Midi Settings

7.5
Play Style
One pass of the pick from the lowest string up, everything left ringing.
Instrument
350
150

Style

Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.

Layout

Left Handed Mode