B11 guitar chord

9th in bass · C# in the bass
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About B11inversions voicings

B11 is B, F#, A, C# and E 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.

Dominant — but effectively a sus chord with a ninth.

Also written B9sus4 or B dominant 11.

B11 inversions guitar chord diagram: B, F#, A, C#, E, played 9-9-9-9-10-11
B11 inversions, 9-9-9-9-10-11 — the shape above, as a picture.

What an inversion is

How to use B11

1In place of the ii

V in E major

B11 has the notes of the ii over the V’s root, so it can take the ii’s bar: B11, then B9, then E. The eleventh gives way to the third, and the V resolves as usual.

Compare with

Listen for: The eleventh falls a half step to the third, then rises a half step into the root of the I.

In which keys. Every note of B11 belongs to C# minor, D major, E major, F# minor, A major and B minor.

What to play over B11

Every note of B11 is in B natural minor, B dorian and B mixolydian.

Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where B11 sits in it. Every scale.

Chords near B11

Change one note of B11 and you have (drop the flat seventh), (the eleventh becomes the minor third), (add the minor third), (drop the ninth) or (the eleventh becomes the major third).

B11 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh 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.

Midi Settings

7.5
Play Style
One pass of the pick from the lowest string up, everything left ringing.
Instrument
350
150

Style

Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.

Layout

Left Handed Mode