Abmaj7#5 guitar chord
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. Because it costs no finger, it sounds a note the closed shape has none left for -- a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath. Either a familiar grip with open strings added, or a shape so sparse the open strings carry the chord. These belong to their key rather than to a shape, so D, A, G and E have many and Eb a handful.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About Abmaj7#5 — open string voicings
Abmaj7#5 is Ab, C, E and G — Abmaj7 with the fifth raised a semitone.
It sounds weightless, with no pull in it. Unlike an aug7 there is no flat seventh dragging it anywhere, so it colours a tonic rather than replacing it with a dominant.
Abmaj7#5 notes and formula
| Ab | C | E | G |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 | 7 |
Tonic — the lydian augmented sound.
Also written AbM7#5, AbΔ7#5, Ab+M7 or Abmaj7(#5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abmaj7#5
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. It costs no finger, so it can sound a note the closed shape has none left for: a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath.
These belong to their key rather than to a shape: they cannot be moved up the neck. D, A, G and E have many; E♭ has a handful.
Abmaj7#5 has 3 of them, on strings 6-5-4-3-2, strings 6-5-4-3-2-1 and the bottom four strings, all of them at the 3rd fret — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the E shape at the 3rd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx2113 — no barre and down at the nut. 2 of the 9 shapes here sit in open position. 1 of the 9 needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx2113 | 1st fret | E, 2nd inversion | G | all fretted |
| 432010 | open position | Ab, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| 435050 | open position | Ab, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| xx6553 | 3rd fret | Ab, root position | G | all fretted |
| 4x5554 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Ab | barred |
| xx6988 | 6th fret | Ab, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-11-10-9-8-8 | 8th fret | Ab, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-11-10-12-x-12 | 10th fret | Ab, root position | E | all fretted |
| x-11-14-12-13-x | 11th fret | Ab, root position | C | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 2 shell, 14 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Abmaj7#5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (Bb), the #11 (D) and the 13 (F).
How to use Abmaj7#5
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Abmaj7#5 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.
Chords near Abmaj7#5
Change one note of Abmaj7#5 and you have Abmaj7 (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), Abmaj7b5 (the sharp fifth becomes a flat fifth), Abaug (drop the major seventh) or Abaug7 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh).
Abmaj7#5 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Abmaj7#5’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.