Ab9#11 guitar chord
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About Ab9#11 — 1st inversion
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.
Also written Ab9(#11), Ab9+11 or Ab9♯11.
What 1st inversion means
Ab9#11 in 1st inversion puts C in the bass instead of Ab, the 3rd of the chord. The notes are the same; what changes is what the bass line does, which is most of why you would reach for it — it lets the lowest voice move by step where the root would have jumped.
One of Ab9#11’s 6 shapes does this: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
- +F
Adds thirteenth, for a dominant sharp-eleventh color.
Chords near Ab9#11
Change one note
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.