Cm11 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Cm11 — drop 3 voicings
Cm11 is C, Eb, G, Bb, D and F — Cm9 with the eleventh added on top.
It sounds spacious and slightly unresolved. The eleventh is a whole step above the minor third, so unlike its major counterpart it fits without a fight.
Pre-dominant or minor tonic — it hangs rather than moves.
Cm11 notes and formula
| C | Eb | G | Bb | D | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 11 |
Also written Cmin11, C-11 or C minor 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Cm11
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.
Cm11 has 9 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: C in the bass, Eb in the bass, Bb in the bass and F in the bass. The one to learn first is the F shape at the nut.
5 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.
Six notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep Eb and Bb (they fix the quality) and F and D (what the symbol is about). Let G and C go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play Cm11 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 13 (A).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x31331, 1st fret, C, root position, top note F, barred
- x33343, 3rd fret, C, root position, top note G, barred
- 868766, 6th fret, C, root position, top note Bb, barred
- 8x886x, 6th fret, C, root position, top note F, barred
- 8-8-8-8-8-10, 8th fret, C, root position, top note D, barred
- x-x-10-10-11-11, 10th fret, C, root position, top note Eb, all fretted
- x-15-13-15-13-13, 13th fret, C, root position, top note F, barred
How to use Cm11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Cm11 is Dm7♭5 to G7♭9: the ii and the V of C minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Cm11 belongs to C minor (the i, the tonic), Eb major (the vi, the submediant), G minor (the iv, the subdominant) and Bb major (the ii, the supertonic).
What to play over Cm11
Every note of Cm11 is in C dorian and C natural minor.
Chords near Cm11
Change one note of Cm11 and you have Cm9 (drop the eleventh), CmMaj11 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh) or C11 (drop the minor third).
Cm11 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor 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.