Abmaj13 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 Abmaj13 — drop 2 voicings
Abmaj13 is Ab, C, Eb, G, Bb and F — Abmaj9 with the thirteenth on top, and the eleventh left out.
It sounds full and wide open. Six notes into four fingers means something goes: keep the third, the seventh and the thirteenth.
Abmaj13 notes and formula
| Ab | C | Eb | G | Bb | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
Tonic — the major sound with most of the scale showing.
Also written AbM13, AbΔ13 or Ab major 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abmaj13
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.
Abmaj13 has 14 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, C in the bass, G in the bass and F in the bass. The one to learn first is the F shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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 x-11-10-10-8-8 — no barre. None of the shapes for Abmaj13 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 3rd fret. 4 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 3rd fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 433343 | 3rd fret | Ab, root position | G | barred |
| 445564 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Ab | barred |
| x86688 | 6th fret | F, 13th in the bass | C | barred |
| x-11-10-10-8-8 | 8th fret | Ab, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-11-8-10-8-8 | 8th fret | Ab, root position | C | barred |
| x-11-11-12-13-13 | 11th fret | Ab, root position | F | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 2 shell, 9 drop 3 and 27 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Abmaj13, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (D).
How to use Abmaj13
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Abmaj13 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 Abmaj13 belongs to C minor (the ♭VI), Eb major (the IV, the subdominant), F minor (the ♭III) and Ab major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Abmaj13
Every note of Abmaj13 is in Ab major and Ab lydian.
Chords near Abmaj13
Change one note of Abmaj13 and you have Abmaj9 (drop the sixth), Abmaj11 (the sixth becomes a fourth), Ab69 (drop the major seventh) or Ab13 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh).
Abmaj13 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Abmaj13’s sound and use this page follows Ted Pease & Ken Pullig, Modern Jazz Voicings (Berklee Press, 2001). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.