FmMaj11 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 FmMaj11 — shell voicings
FmMaj11 is F, Ab, C, E, G and Bb — FmMaj9 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.
FmMaj11 notes and formula
| F | Ab | C | E | G | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Minor tonic — the melodic minor as far up as a guitar carries it.
Also written FmM11 or Fm(maj11). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play FmMaj11
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.
FmMaj11 has 5 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1, strings 6-4-3-2, the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 11th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the F shape at the nut.
Start with xx3354 — no barre and low, at the 3rd fret. None of the shapes for FmMaj11 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 5 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 112113 | 1st fret | F, root position | G | barred |
| xx3354 | 3rd fret | F, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| x33354 | 3rd fret | C, 2nd inversion | Ab | barred |
| x86986 | 6th fret | F, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x88998 | 8th fret | F, root position | C | barred |
| x-8-8-10-10-8 | 8th fret | F, root position | C | barred |
| 13-13-14-13-13-15 | 13th fret | F, root position | G | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 13 drop 2, 8 drop 3, 24 rootless and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of FmMaj11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (D).
How to use FmMaj11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on FmMaj11 is Gm7♭5 to C7♭9: the ii and the V of F minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
What to play over FmMaj11
Every note of FmMaj11 is in F harmonic minor and F melodic minor.
Chords near FmMaj11
Change one note of FmMaj11 and you have Fmaj11 (the minor third becomes a major third), Fm11 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh) or FmMaj9 (drop the fourth).
FmMaj11 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On FmMaj11’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.