Dmaj13 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 Dmaj13 — drop 2 voicings
Dmaj13 is D, F#, A, C#, E and B — Dmaj9 with the thirteenth on top, and the eleventh left out.
It sounds full and wide open. Six notes into four fingers means something goes: keep the third, the seventh and the thirteenth.
Dmaj13 notes and formula
| D | F# | A | C# | E | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
Tonic — the major sound with most of the scale showing.
Also written DM13, DΔ13 or D major 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Dmaj13
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.
Dmaj13 has 12 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: D in the bass, F# in the bass, C# in the bass and B in the bass. The one to learn first is the F# shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
4 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 xx0422 — no barre and 1 open string. 2 of the 8 shapes here sit in open position. 4 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx0422 | open position | D, root position | F# | 1 open string |
| x54420 | open position | D, root position | E | 1 open string |
| x52422 | 2nd fret | D, root position | F# | barred |
| x54422 | 2nd fret | D, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x55677 | 5th fret | D, root position | B | all fretted |
| 10-9-9-9-10-9 | 9th fret | D, root position | C# | barred |
| 10-10-11-11-12-10 | 10th fret | D, root position | D | barred |
| x-14-12-12-14-14 | 12th fret | B, 13th in the bass | F# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 8 drop 3, 24 rootless and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Dmaj13, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (G#).
How to use Dmaj13
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Dmaj13 is Em7 to A7 — the ii and the V of D — and A7 shares its third and seventh with Em7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Dmaj13 belongs to D major (the I, the tonic), F# minor (the ♭VI), A major (the IV, the subdominant) and B minor (the ♭III).
What to play over Dmaj13
Every note of Dmaj13 is in D major and D lydian.
Chords near Dmaj13
Change one note of Dmaj13 and you have Dmaj9 (drop the sixth), Dmaj11 (the sixth becomes a fourth), D69 (drop the major seventh) or D13 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh).
Dmaj13 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Dmaj13’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.