AbmMaj11 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About AbmMaj11 — shell voicings
AbmMaj11 is Ab, Cb, Eb, G, Bb and Db — AbmMaj9 with the eleventh added on top.
It sounds dense and unresolved. Something is always omitted; the ♭3 and the natural 7 are what must not be.
AbmMaj11 notes and formula
| Ab | Cb | Eb | G | Bb | Db |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Minor tonic — the melodic minor as far up as a guitar carries it.
Also written AbmM11 or Abm(maj11). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play AbmMaj11
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
AbmMaj11 has 5 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2, the bottom four strings, strings 5-3-2-1, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 9th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the Ab shape at the 2nd fret.
Start with xx6687 — no barre. None of the shapes for AbmMaj11 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 4th fret. 4 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 4th fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 445446 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | barred |
| xx6687 | 6th fret | Ab, root position | Cb | all fretted |
| x66687 | 6th fret | Eb, 2nd inversion | Cb | barred |
| x-11-9-12-11-9 | 9th fret | Ab, root position | Db | all fretted |
| x-11-11-12-12-11 | 11th fret | Ab, root position | Eb | barred |
| x-11-11-13-13-11 | 11th fret | Ab, root position | Eb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 12 drop 2, 9 drop 3, 24 rootless and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of AbmMaj11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (F).
How to use AbmMaj11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on AbmMaj11 is Bbm7♭5 to Eb7♭9: the ii and the V of Ab minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
What to play over AbmMaj11
Every note of AbmMaj11 is in Ab harmonic minor and Ab melodic minor.
Chords near AbmMaj11
Change one note of AbmMaj11 and you have Abmaj11 (the minor third becomes a major third), Abm11 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh) or AbmMaj9 (drop the fourth).
AbmMaj11 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On AbmMaj11’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.