B11 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 B11 — drop 2 voicings
B11 is B, F#, A, C# and E — B9 with the eleventh added, and the third usually dropped.
It sounds suspended rather than tense. The eleventh sits a semitone above the major third, so the third is usually dropped; some shapes here keep it anyway.
B11 notes and formula
| B | F# | A | C# | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 11 |
Dominant — but effectively a sus chord with a ninth.
Also written B9sus4 or B dominant 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play B11
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.
B11 has 25 of them, on the middle four strings, the bottom four strings and the top four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: B in the bass, F# in the bass, A in the bass, C# in the bass and E in the bass. The one to learn first is the B shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
9 of them sit on the bottom 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 x21200 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 6 shapes here sits in open position. 3 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x21200 | open position | B, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| x22242 | 2nd fret | B, root position | F# | barred |
| x64455 | 4th fret | D# | A | all fretted |
| 777877 | 7th fret | B, root position | B | barred |
| 9-9-9-9-10-11 | 9th fret | C#, 9th in the bass | Eb | barred |
| x-14-13-14-12-12 | 12th fret | B, root position | E | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 17 drop 3, 13 rootless and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use B11
B11 is the V of E, and that is where it goes if it goes anywhere: the third and the flat seventh are a tritone apart, and both resolve by a semitone into E.
Voice by voice, B11 → E. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In B11 | Moves | In E |
|---|---|---|
| B, the root | stays where it is | B, the fifth |
| F#, the fifth | falls a whole tone | E, the root |
| A, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | G#, the major third |
| C#, the ninth | falls a whole tone | B, the fifth |
| E, the eleventh | stays where it is | E, the root |
In which keys. Every note of B11 belongs to C# minor (the ♭VII), D major (the vi), E major (the V), F# minor (the iv), A major (the ii) and B minor (the i).
What to play over B11
Every note of B11 is in B mixolydian, B dorian and B natural minor.
Chords near B11
Change one note of B11 and you have Bsus2sus4 (drop the flat seventh), Bm9 (the fourth becomes a minor third), Bm11 (add the minor third), B7sus4 (drop the ninth) or B9 (the fourth becomes a major third).
B11 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On B11’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.