C11 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 C11 — drop 2 voicings
C11 is C, G, Bb, D and F — C9 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.
C11 notes and formula
| C | G | Bb | D | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 11 |
Dominant — but effectively a sus chord with a ninth.
Also written C9sus4 or C dominant 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C11
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.
C11 has 26 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 15th — every inversion the chord has: C in the bass, G in the bass, Bb in the bass, D in the bass and F in the bass. The one to learn first is the F 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 x32311 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for C11 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 3 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x32311 | 1st fret | C, root position | F | all fretted |
| x33353 | 3rd fret | C, root position | G | barred |
| x75566 | 5th fret | E | Bb | all fretted |
| 870066 | 6th fret | C, root position | Bb | 2 open strings |
| 888988 | 8th fret | C, root position | C | barred |
| 10-10-10-10-11-12 | 10th fret | D, 9th in the bass | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 17 drop 3, 15 rootless and 2 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use C11
C11 is the V of F, 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 F.
Voice by voice, C11 → F. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In C11 | Moves | In F |
|---|---|---|
| C, the root | stays where it is | C, the fifth |
| G, the fifth | falls a whole tone | F, the root |
| Bb, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | A, the major third |
| D, the ninth | falls a whole tone | C, the fifth |
| F, the eleventh | stays where it is | F, the root |
In which keys. Every note of C11 belongs to C minor (the i), D minor (the ♭VII), Eb major (the vi), F major (the V), G minor (the iv) and Bb major (the ii).
What to play over C11
Every note of C11 is in C mixolydian, C dorian and C natural minor.
Chords near C11
Change one note of C11 and you have Csus2sus4 (drop the flat seventh), Cm9 (the fourth becomes a minor third), Cm11 (add the minor third), C7sus4 (drop the ninth) or C9 (the fourth becomes a major third).
C11 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On C11’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.