Bb11 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Bb11 — drop 2 voicings
Bb11 is Bb, F, Ab, C and Eb — Bb9 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.
Bb11 notes and formula
| Bb | F | Ab | C | Eb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 11 |
Dominant — but effectively a sus chord with a ninth.
Also written Bb9sus4 or Bb dominant 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bb11
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.
Bb11 has 25 of them, on the middle four strings, the bottom four strings and the top four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: Bb in the bass, F in the bass, Ab in the bass, C in the bass and Eb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Bb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
9 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 x53344 — no barre and low, at the 3rd fret. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 4 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x11131 | 1st fret | Bb, root position | F | barred |
| x53344 | 3rd fret | D | Ab | all fretted |
| 650544 | open position | Bb, root position | Ab | 1 open string |
| 666766 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | barred |
| 8-8-8-8-9-10 | 8th fret | C, 9th in the bass | D | barred |
| x-13-12-13-11-11 | 11th fret | Bb, root position | Eb | all fretted |
| x-13-13-13-15-13 | 13th fret | Bb, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 16 drop 3 and 13 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Bb11
Bb11 is the V of Eb, and that is where it goes if it goes anywhere: the third and the flat seventh are a tritone apart, and both resolve by a semitone into Eb.
Voice by voice, Bb11 → Eb. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In Bb11 | Moves | In Eb |
|---|---|---|
| Bb, the root | stays where it is | Bb, the fifth |
| F, the fifth | falls a whole tone | Eb, the root |
| Ab, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | G, the major third |
| C, the ninth | falls a whole tone | Bb, the fifth |
| Eb, the eleventh | stays where it is | Eb, the root |
In which keys. Every note of Bb11 belongs to C minor (the ♭VII), C# major (the vi), Eb major (the V), F minor (the iv), Ab major (the ii) and Bb minor (the i).
What to play over Bb11
Every note of Bb11 is in Bb mixolydian, Bb dorian and Bb natural minor.
Chords near Bb11
Change one note of Bb11 and you have Bbsus2sus4 (drop the flat seventh), Bbm9 (the fourth becomes a minor third), Bbm11 (add the minor third), Bb7sus4 (drop the ninth) or Bb9 (the fourth becomes a major third).
Bb11 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On Bb11’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.