F#mMaj11 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.
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About F#mMaj11 — shell voicings
F#mMaj11 is F#, A, C#, E#, G# and B — F#mMaj9 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.
F#mMaj11 notes and formula
| F# | A | C# | E# | G# | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Minor tonic — the melodic minor as far up as a guitar carries it.
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
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.
F#mMaj11 has 6 of them, on the bottom four strings, strings 6-4-3-2, strings 5-3-2-1, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 12th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the F# shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx4465 — no barre and low, at the 4th fret. None of the shapes for F#mMaj11 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 4 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 11th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 223224 | 2nd fret | F#, root position | G# | barred |
| xx4465 | 4th fret | F#, root position | A | all fretted |
| x44465 | 4th fret | C#, 2nd inversion | A | barred |
| x-9-7-10-9-7 | 7th fret | F#, root position | B | all fretted |
| x-9-9-10-10-9 | 9th fret | F#, root position | C# | barred |
| x-9-9-11-11-9 | 9th fret | F#, root position | C# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 14 drop 2, 9 drop 3, 24 rootless and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of F#mMaj11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (D#).
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 a major third), F#m11 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh) or F#mMaj9 (drop the fourth).
F#mMaj11 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On F#mMaj11’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.