Bmaj13 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Bmaj13 — uncommon voicings
Bmaj13 is B, D#, F#, A#, C# and G# — Bmaj9 with the thirteenth on top, and the eleventh left out.
It sounds full and wide open. Everything the major scale offers except the eleventh, which is left out because it fights the third.
Tonic — the major sound with most of the scale showing.
Bmaj13 notes and formula
| B | D# | F# | A# | C# | G# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
Also written BM13, BΔ13 or B major 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bmaj13
Six notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep D# and A# (they fix the quality) and G# 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 Bmaj13 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (E#).
All 6 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x22344, 2nd fret, B, root position, top note G#, all fretted
- 766676, 6th fret, B, root position, top note A#, barred
- 778897, 7th fret, B, root position, top note B, barred
- x-11-9-9-11-11, 9th fret, G#, 13th in the bass, top note D#, barred
- x-14-13-13-11-11, 11th fret, B, root position, top note D#, all fretted
- x-14-11-13-11-11, 11th fret, B, root position, top note D#, barred
How to use Bmaj13
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Bmaj13 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 Bmaj13 belongs to Eb minor (the ♭VI), F# major (the IV, the subdominant), Ab minor (the ♭III) and B major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Bmaj13
Every note of Bmaj13 is in B major and B lydian.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Bmaj13 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Bmaj13
Change one note of Bmaj13 and you have Bmaj9 (drop the thirteenth), Bmaj11 (the thirteenth becomes the eleventh), B69 (drop the major seventh) or B13 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh).
Bmaj13 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.