Abmaj13 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Abmaj13 — uncommon 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. Everything the major scale offers except the eleventh, which is left out because it fights the third.
Tonic — the major sound with most of the scale showing.
Abmaj13 notes and formula
| Ab | C | Eb | G | Bb | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
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
Six notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep C and G (they fix the quality) and F and Bb (what the symbol is about). Let Eb and Ab go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play Abmaj13 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (D).
All 6 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 433343, 3rd fret, Ab, root position, top note G, barred
- 445564, 4th fret, Ab, root position, top note Ab, barred
- x86688, 6th fret, F, 13th in the bass, top note C, barred
- x-11-10-10-8-8, 8th fret, Ab, root position, top note C, all fretted
- x-11-8-10-8-8, 8th fret, Ab, root position, top note C, barred
- x-11-11-12-13-13, 11th fret, Ab, root position, top note F, all fretted
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.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Abmaj13 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Abmaj13
Change one note of Abmaj13 and you have Abmaj9 (drop the thirteenth), Abmaj11 (the thirteenth becomes the eleventh), Ab69 (drop the major seventh) or Ab13 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh).
Abmaj13 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major 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.