Bbmaj13 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Bbmaj13 — uncommon voicings
Bbmaj13 is Bb, D, F, A, C and G — Bbmaj9 with the thirteenth on top, and the eleventh left out.
It sounds full and wide open. Everything the major scale offers except the eleventh, which is left out because it fights the third.
Tonic — the major sound with most of the scale showing.
Bbmaj13 notes and formula
| Bb | D | F | A | C | G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
Also written BbM13, BbΔ13 or Bb major 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bbmaj13
Six notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep D and A (they fix the quality) and G and C (what the symbol is about). Let F and Bb go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play Bbmaj13 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (E).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x11233, 1st fret, Bb, root position, top note G, all fretted
- 655565, 5th fret, Bb, root position, top note A, barred
- 667786, 6th fret, Bb, root position, top note Bb, barred
- x-10-8-8-10-10, 8th fret, G, 13th in the bass, top note D, barred
- x-13-12-12-10-10, 10th fret, Bb, root position, top note D, all fretted
- x-13-10-12-10-10, 10th fret, Bb, root position, top note D, barred
- x-13-13-14-15-15, 13th fret, Bb, root position, top note G, all fretted
How to use Bbmaj13
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Bbmaj13 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 Bbmaj13 belongs to D minor (the ♭VI), F major (the IV, the subdominant), G minor (the ♭III) and Bb major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Bbmaj13
Every note of Bbmaj13 is in Bb major and Bb lydian.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Bbmaj13 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Bbmaj13
Change one note of Bbmaj13 and you have Bbmaj9 (drop the thirteenth), Bbmaj11 (the thirteenth becomes the eleventh), Bb69 (drop the major seventh) or Bb13 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh).
Bbmaj13 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.