BmMaj11 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About BmMaj11 — shell voicings
BmMaj11 is B, D, F#, A#, C# and E — BmMaj9 with the eleventh added on top.
It sounds dense and unresolved. Something is always omitted; the ♭3 and the natural 7 are what must not be.
BmMaj11 notes and formula
| B | D | F# | A# | C# | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Minor tonic — the melodic minor as far up as a guitar carries it.
Also written BmM11 or Bm(maj11). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play BmMaj11
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
BmMaj11 has 7 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1, the middle four strings, strings 6-4-3-2, the bottom four strings and the top four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 12th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the B shape at the 2nd fret.
Start with x20320 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 5 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x20320 | open position | B, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| x22332 | 2nd fret | B, root position | F# | barred |
| x22442 | 2nd fret | B, root position | F# | barred |
| 778779 | 7th fret | B, root position | C# | barred |
| x-x-9-9-11-10 | 9th fret | B, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-9-9-9-11-10 | 9th fret | F#, 2nd inversion | D | barred |
| x-14-12-15-14-12 | 12th fret | B, root position | E | all fretted |
| x-14-14-15-15-14 | 14th fret | B, root position | F# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 15 drop 2, 10 drop 3, 24 rootless and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of BmMaj11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (G#).
How to use BmMaj11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on BmMaj11 is C#m7♭5 to F#7♭9: the ii and the V of B minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
What to play over BmMaj11
Every note of BmMaj11 is in B harmonic minor and B melodic minor.
Chords near BmMaj11
Change one note of BmMaj11 and you have Bmaj11 (the minor third becomes a major third), Bm11 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh) or BmMaj9 (drop the fourth).
BmMaj11 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On BmMaj11’s sound and use this page follows Ted Pease & Ken Pullig, Modern Jazz Voicings (Berklee Press, 2001). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.