F#mMaj11 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 F#mMaj11 — drop 2 voicings
F#mMaj11 is F#, A, C#, E#, G# and B — F#mMaj9 with the eleventh added on top.
It sounds dense and unresolved. The melodic minor tonic with most of the scale showing — more a texture than a chord to comp on.
Minor tonic — the melodic minor as far up as a guitar carries it.
F#mMaj11 notes and formula
| F# | A | C# | E# | G# | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Also written F#mM11 or F#m(maj11). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F#mMaj11
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.
F#mMaj11 has 14 of them, on the top four strings, the bottom four strings and the middle four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: F# in the bass, A in the bass, E# in the bass and B in the bass. The one to learn first is the E# shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the top 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.
Six notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep A and E# (they fix the quality) and B and G# (what the symbol is about). Let C# and F# go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play F#mMaj11 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 13 (D#).
All 6 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 223224, 2nd fret, F#, root position, top note G#, barred
- xx4465, 4th fret, F#, root position, top note A, all fretted
- x44465, 4th fret, C#, 2nd inversion, top note A, barred
- x-9-7-10-9-7, 7th fret, F#, root position, top note B, all fretted
- x-9-9-10-10-9, 9th fret, F#, root position, top note C#, barred
- x-9-9-11-11-9, 9th fret, F#, root position, top note C#, barred
How to use F#mMaj11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on F#mMaj11 is G#m7♭5 to C#7♭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 F#mMaj11
Every note of F#mMaj11 is in F# harmonic minor and F# melodic minor.
Chords near F#mMaj11
Change one note of F#mMaj11 and you have F#maj11 (the minor third becomes the major third), F#m11 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh) or F#mMaj9 (drop the eleventh).
F#mMaj11 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.