Bb11 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 Bb11 — rootless 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
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.
Bb11 has 13 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: F in the bass, Ab in the bass, C in the bass and Eb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Eb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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.
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 25 drop 2 and 16 drop 3 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.