Fmaj11 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Fmaj11 — drop 2 voicings
Fmaj11 is F, A, C, E, G and Bb — Fmaj9 with the eleventh added — the note that fights the major third.
It sounds unsettled, and grittier than the rest of the major family. Most players drop the third or raise the eleventh instead, which is how you arrive at a sus chord or at maj7♯11.
Fmaj11 notes and formula
| F | A | C | E | G | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Tonic, awkwardly — the eleventh sits a semitone above the third.
Also written FM11, FΔ11 or F major 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Fmaj11
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.
Fmaj11 has 13 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: F in the bass, A in the bass, E in the bass and Bb in the bass. The one to learn first is the F shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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 xx3355 — no barre and low, at the 3rd fret. None of the shapes for Fmaj11 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 4 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 112211 | 1st fret | F, root position | F | barred |
| 112213 | 1st fret | F, root position | G | barred |
| xx3355 | 3rd fret | F, root position | A | all fretted |
| x87966 | 6th fret | F, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x-8-8-9-10-8 | 8th fret | F, root position | C | barred |
| 13-12-14-0-11-0 | 11th fret | F, root position | Bb | 2 open strings |
| 13-12-x-x-11-12 | 11th fret | F, root position | E | all fretted |
| 13-13-14-14-13-13 | 13th fret | F, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 6 shell, 8 drop 3, 24 rootless and 5 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Fmaj11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (D).
How to use Fmaj11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Fmaj11 is Gm7 to C7 — the ii and the V of F — and C7 shares its third and seventh with Gm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Fmaj11 belongs to D minor (the ♭III) and F major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Fmaj11
Every note of Fmaj11 is in F major.
Chords near Fmaj11
Change one note of Fmaj11 and you have Fmaj9 (drop the fourth), Fmaj13 (the fourth becomes a sixth) or FmMaj11 (the major third becomes a minor third).
Fmaj11 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Fmaj11’s sound and use this page follows Barrie Nettles & Richard Graf, The Chord Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony (Advance Music, 1997). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.