Bmaj11 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About Bmaj11 — drop 2 voicings
Bmaj11 is B, D#, F#, A#, C# and E — Bmaj9 with the eleventh added — the note that fights the major third.
It sounds unsettled, and grittier than the rest of the major family. Most players drop the third or raise the eleventh instead, which is how you arrive at a sus chord or at maj7♯11.
Bmaj11 notes and formula
| B | D# | F# | A# | C# | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Tonic, awkwardly — the eleventh sits a semitone above the third.
Also written BM11, BΔ11 or B major 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bmaj11
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.
Bmaj11 has 14 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: B in the bass, D# in the bass, A# in the bass and E in the bass. The one to learn first is the E shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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 x21300 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 3 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x21300 | open position | B, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| x22342 | 2nd fret | B, root position | F# | barred |
| 76xx56 | 5th fret | B, root position | A# | all fretted |
| 778877 | 7th fret | B, root position | B | barred |
| 778879 | 7th fret | B, root position | C# | barred |
| x-x-9-9-11-11 | 9th fret | B, root position | D# | all fretted |
| x-14-13-15-12-12 | 12th fret | B, root position | E | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell, 9 drop 3 and 22 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Bmaj11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (G#).
How to use Bmaj11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Bmaj11 is C#m7 to F#7 — the ii and the V of B — and F#7 shares its third and seventh with C#m7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Bmaj11 belongs to Ab minor (the ♭III) and B major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Bmaj11
Every note of Bmaj11 is in B major.
Chords near Bmaj11
Change one note of Bmaj11 and you have Bmaj9 (drop the fourth), Bmaj13 (the fourth becomes a sixth) or BmMaj11 (the major third becomes a minor third).
Bmaj11 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Bmaj11’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.