G9#11 guitar chord
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. Because it costs no finger, it sounds a note the closed shape has none left for -- a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath. Either a familiar grip with open strings added, or a shape so sparse the open strings carry the chord. These belong to their key rather than to a shape, so D, A, G and E have many and Eb a handful.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About G9#11 — open string voicings
G9#11 is G, B, D, F, A and C# — G9 with the raised eleventh added on top.
It sounds wide and glassy, bright rather than tense. The ♯11 clears the major third by a whole step, so it adds height without the collision a natural eleventh makes.
G9#11 notes and formula
| G | B | D | F | A | C# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | ♯11 |
Dominant — the lydian dominant sound.
Also written G9(#11), G9+11 or G9♯11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play G9#11
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. It costs no finger, so it can sound a note the closed shape has none left for: a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath.
These belong to their key rather than to a shape: they cannot be moved up the neck. D, A, G and E have many; E♭ has a handful.
G9#11 has 3 of them, only on strings 5-4-3-2-1, from the 2nd fret up to the 4th — every inversion the chord has: B in the bass, A in the bass and C# in the bass. The one to learn first is the B shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
3 of them sit on strings 5-4-3-2-1, 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 3x342x — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for G9#11 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 3 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 323223 | 2nd fret | G, root position | G | barred |
| 343433 | 3rd fret | G, root position | G | barred |
| 3x342x | 2nd fret | G, root position | C# | all fretted |
| xx5667 | 5th fret | G, root position | B | all fretted |
| x-10-9-10-10-9 | 9th fret | G, root position | C# | barred |
| x-10-11-10-12-x | 10th fret | G, root position | B | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 9 shell and 14 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of G9#11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b13 (Eb) and the 13 (E).
How to use G9#11
G9#11 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at C — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
Voice by voice, G9#11 → C. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In G9#11 | Moves | In C |
|---|---|---|
| G, the root | stays where it is | G, the fifth |
| B, the major third | rises a semitone | C, the root |
| D, the fifth | falls a whole tone | C, the root |
| F, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | E, the major third |
| A, the ninth | falls a whole tone | G, the fifth |
| C#, the sharp eleventh | falls a semitone | C, the root |
What to play over G9#11
Every note of G9#11 is in G lydian dominant.
Chords near G9#11
Change one note of G9#11 and you have G9 (drop the flat fifth), G9b5 (drop the fifth) or G13 (the flat fifth becomes a sixth).
G9#11 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On G9#11’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.