Gm11 guitar chord
The root left to the bass player. Frees a finger for a tension.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Gm11 — rootless voicings
Gm11 is G, Bb, D, F, A and C — Gm9 with the eleventh added on top.
It sounds spacious and slightly unresolved. The eleventh is a whole step above the minor third, so unlike its major counterpart it fits without a fight.
Gm11 notes and formula
| G | Bb | D | F | A | C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 11 |
Pre-dominant or minor tonic — it hangs rather than moves.
Also written Gmin11, G-11 or G minor 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gm11
Leave the root to the bass player. In a band nobody misses it, and the ear supplies it from the guide tones anyway.
The finger it frees goes to a tension, which is why these sound richer than the shape they came from rather than thinner.
Gm11 has 25 of them, on the middle four strings, the top four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 15th — every inversion the chord has: Bb in the bass, D in the bass, F in the bass, A in the bass and C in the bass. The one to learn first is the Bb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
9 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.
Start with xx5566 — no barre and low, at the 5th fret. None of the shapes for Gm11 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 7 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 313211 | 1st fret | G, root position | F | barred |
| 3x331x | 1st fret | G, root position | C | barred |
| 333335 | 3rd fret | G, root position | A | barred |
| xx5566 | 5th fret | G, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x-10-8-10-8-8 | 8th fret | G, root position | C | barred |
| x-10-8-10-10-8 | 8th fret | G, root position | C | barred |
| x-10-10-10-11-10 | 10th fret | G, root position | D | barred |
| 15-13-15-14-13-13 | 13th fret | G, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 8 shell, 15 drop 2, 10 drop 3 and 3 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Gm11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (E).
How to use Gm11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Gm11 is Am7♭5 to D7♭9: the ii and the V of G minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Gm11 belongs to D minor (the iv, the subdominant), F major (the ii, the supertonic), G minor (the i, the tonic) and Bb major (the vi, the submediant).
What to play over Gm11
Every note of Gm11 is in G dorian and G natural minor.
Chords near Gm11
Change one note of Gm11 and you have Gm9 (drop the fourth), GmMaj11 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh) or G11 (drop the minor third).
Gm11 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Gm11’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.