CmMaj11 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About CmMaj11 — shell 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
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
CmMaj11 has 5 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1, strings 6-4-3-2, the bottom four strings, the middle four strings and the top four strings, from open position up to the 8th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the C shape at the nut.
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 12 drop 2, 8 drop 3 and 24 rootless 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.