Abmaj11 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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About Abmaj11 — drop 3 voicings
Abmaj11 is Ab, C, Eb, G, Bb and Db — Abmaj9 with the eleventh added — the note that fights the major third.
It sounds unsettled, and grittier than the rest of the major family. Most players drop the third or raise the eleventh instead, which is how you arrive at a sus chord or at maj7♯11.
Abmaj11 notes and formula
| Ab | C | Eb | G | Bb | Db |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Tonic, awkwardly — the eleventh sits a semitone above the third.
Also written AbM11, AbΔ11 or Ab major 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abmaj11
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
Abmaj11 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: Ab in the bass, C in the bass, G in the bass and Db in the bass. The one to learn first is the C shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, 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 43102x — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 3 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43102x | open position | Ab, root position | Db | 1 open string |
| 43xx23 | 2nd fret | Ab, root position | G | all fretted |
| 445544 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Ab | barred |
| 445546 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | barred |
| xx6688 | 6th fret | Ab, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-11-10-12-9-9 | 9th fret | Ab, root position | Db | all fretted |
| x-11-11-12-13-11 | 11th fret | Ab, root position | Eb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell, 12 drop 2 and 24 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Abmaj11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (F).
How to use Abmaj11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Abmaj11 is Bbm7 to Eb7 — the ii and the V of Ab — and Eb7 shares its third and seventh with Bbm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Abmaj11 belongs to F minor (the ♭III) and Ab major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Abmaj11
Every note of Abmaj11 is in Ab major.
Chords near Abmaj11
Change one note of Abmaj11 and you have Abmaj9 (drop the fourth), Abmaj13 (the fourth becomes a sixth) or AbmMaj11 (the major third becomes a minor third).
Abmaj11 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Abmaj11’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.