Bmaj11 guitar chord
The root left to the bass player. Frees a finger for a tension.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Bmaj11 — rootless 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.
Tonic, awkwardly — the eleventh sits a semitone above the third.
Bmaj11 notes and formula
| B | D# | F# | A# | C# | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
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
Leave the root to the bass player. In a band nobody misses it, and the ear supplies it from the guide tones anyway.
The finger it frees goes to a tension, which is why these sound richer than the shape they came from rather than thinner.
Bmaj11 has 22 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: D# 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 D# shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
8 of them sit on the top 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.
Six notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep D# and A# (they fix the quality) and E and C# (what the symbol is about). Let F# and B go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play Bmaj11 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 13 (G#).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x21300, open position, B, root position, top note E, 2 open strings
- x22342, 2nd fret, B, root position, top note F#, barred
- 76xx56, 5th fret, B, root position, top note A#, all fretted
- 778877, 7th fret, B, root position, top note B, barred
- 778879, 7th fret, B, root position, top note C#, barred
- x-x-9-9-11-11, 9th fret, B, root position, top note D#, all fretted
- x-14-13-15-12-12, 12th fret, B, root position, top note E, all fretted
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 eleventh), Bmaj13 (the eleventh becomes the thirteenth) or BmMaj11 (the major third becomes the minor third).
Bmaj11 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major 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.