Bbmaj11 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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About Bbmaj11 — drop 3 voicings
Bbmaj11 is Bb, D, F, A, C and Eb — Bbmaj9 with the eleventh added — the note that fights the major third.
It sounds unsettled, and grittier than the rest of the major family. Most players drop the third or raise the eleventh instead, which is how you arrive at a sus chord or at maj7♯11.
Bbmaj11 notes and formula
| Bb | D | F | A | C | Eb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Tonic, awkwardly — the eleventh sits a semitone above the third.
Also written BbM11, BbΔ11 or Bb major 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bbmaj11
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
Bbmaj11 has 8 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: Bb in the bass, D in the bass, A in the bass and Eb in the bass. The one to learn first is the A shape at the nut.
4 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, 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 6x0545 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 4 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x11231 | 1st fret | Bb, root position | F | barred |
| 6x0545 | open position | Bb, root position | A | 1 open string |
| 65xx45 | 4th fret | Bb, root position | A | all fretted |
| 667766 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | barred |
| 667768 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | C | barred |
| x-x-8-8-10-10 | 8th fret | Bb, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-13-12-14-11-11 | 11th fret | Bb, root position | Eb | all fretted |
| x-13-13-14-15-13 | 13th fret | Bb, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 6 shell, 13 drop 2, 25 rootless and 5 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Bbmaj11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (G).
How to use Bbmaj11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Bbmaj11 is Cm7 to F7 — the ii and the V of Bb — and F7 shares its third and seventh with Cm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Bbmaj11 belongs to G minor (the ♭III) and Bb major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Bbmaj11
Every note of Bbmaj11 is in Bb major.
Chords near Bbmaj11
Change one note of Bbmaj11 and you have Bbmaj9 (drop the fourth), Bbmaj13 (the fourth becomes a sixth) or BbmMaj11 (the major third becomes a minor third).
Bbmaj11 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Bbmaj11’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.