C11 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 C11 — rootless 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
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.
C11 has 15 of them, on the middle four strings, the top four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 15th — every inversion the chord has: G in the bass, Bb in the bass, D in the bass and F in the bass. The one to learn first is the Bb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the middle 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 26 drop 2, 17 drop 3 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.