Dmaj13 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 Dmaj13 — shell 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
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.
Dmaj13 has 3 of them, on the top four strings, strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from the 5th fret up to the 10th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the D shape at the 6th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
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 12 drop 2, 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.