Bb13 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.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Bb13 — shell voicings
Bb13 is Bb, D, F, Ab, C and G — Bb9 with the thirteenth added on top.
It sounds big and open. Six notes will not fit under four fingers: the fifth goes first, then the ninth, and the third, flat seventh and thirteenth stay.
Bb13 notes and formula
| Bb | D | F | Ab | C | G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 13 |
Dominant — the full V chord.
Also written Bbdom13 or Bb dominant 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bb13
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.
Bb13 has 3 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 13th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the Bb shape at the nut.
Start with x10133 — no barre and 1 open string. 2 of the 10 shapes here sit in open position. 7 of the 10 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x10133 | open position | Bb, root position | G | 1 open string |
| 111133 | 1st fret | F, 2nd inversion | G | barred |
| 635334 | 3rd fret | Bb, root position | Ab | barred |
| 650044 | open position | Bb, root position | Ab | 2 open strings |
| 655564 | 4th fret | Bb, root position | Ab | barred |
| 666788 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | C | barred |
| 686786 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | barred |
| x-13-12-13-15-15 | 12th fret | Bb, root position | G | all fretted |
| x-13-12-13-13-15 | 12th fret | Bb, root position | G | barred |
| 13-13-13-13-15-15 | 13th fret | F, 2nd inversion | G | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 13 drop 2, 9 drop 3, 26 rootless and 4 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Bb13, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (E).
How to use Bb13
Bb13 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, Bb13 → Eb. 2 voices move by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In Bb13 | Moves | In Eb |
|---|---|---|
| Bb, the root | stays where it is | Bb, the fifth |
| D, the major third | rises a semitone | Eb, the root |
| 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 |
| G, the thirteenth | stays where it is | G, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of Bb13 belongs to C minor (the ♭VII) and Eb major (the V, the dominant).
What to play over Bb13
Every note of Bb13 is in Bb mixolydian and Bb lydian dominant.
Chords near Bb13
Change one note of Bb13 and you have Bbmaj13 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), Bb69 (drop the flat seventh), Bb9 (drop the sixth) or Bb9#11 (the sixth becomes a flat fifth).
Bb13 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On Bb13’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.