CmMaj11 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 CmMaj11 — rootless voicings
CmMaj11 is C, Eb, G, B, D and F — CmMaj9 with the eleventh added on top.
It sounds dense and unresolved. Something is always omitted; the ♭3 and the natural 7 are what must not be.
CmMaj11 notes and formula
| C | Eb | G | B | D | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Minor tonic — the melodic minor as far up as a guitar carries it.
Also written CmM11 or Cm(maj11). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play CmMaj11
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.
CmMaj11 has 24 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: Eb in the bass, G in the bass, B in the bass, D in the bass and F in the bass. The one to learn first is the Eb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
8 of them sit on the top 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 x31001 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 4 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x31001 | open position | C, root position | F | 2 open strings |
| x33443 | 3rd fret | C, root position | G | barred |
| x31431 | 1st fret | C, root position | F | all fretted |
| x33553 | 3rd fret | C, root position | G | barred |
| 8-8-9-8-8-10 | 8th fret | C, root position | D | barred |
| x-x-10-10-12-11 | 10th fret | C, root position | Eb | all fretted |
| x-10-10-10-12-11 | 10th fret | G, 2nd inversion | Eb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell, 12 drop 2 and 8 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of CmMaj11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (A).
How to use CmMaj11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on CmMaj11 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.
What to play over CmMaj11
Every note of CmMaj11 is in C harmonic minor and C melodic minor.
Chords near CmMaj11
Change one note of CmMaj11 and you have Cmaj11 (the minor third becomes a major third), Cm11 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh) or CmMaj9 (drop the fourth).
CmMaj11 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On CmMaj11’s sound and use this page follows Ted Pease & Ken Pullig, Modern Jazz Voicings (Berklee Press, 2001). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.