Gmaj13 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Gmaj13 — uncommon voicings
Gmaj13 is G, B, D, F#, A and E — Gmaj9 with the thirteenth on top, and the eleventh left out.
It sounds full and wide open. Everything the major scale offers except the eleventh, which is left out because it fights the third.
Tonic — the major sound with most of the scale showing.
Gmaj13 notes and formula
| G | B | D | F# | A | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
Also written GM13, GΔ13 or G major 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gmaj13
Six notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep B and F# (they fix the quality) and E and A (what the symbol is about). Let D and G go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play Gmaj13 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (C#).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 322232, 2nd fret, G, root position, top note F#, barred
- 334453, 3rd fret, G, root position, top note G, barred
- x75577, 5th fret, E, 13th in the bass, top note B, barred
- x-10-9-9-7-7, 7th fret, G, root position, top note B, all fretted
- x-10-7-9-7-7, 7th fret, G, root position, top note B, barred
- x-10-10-11-12-12, 10th fret, G, root position, top note E, all fretted
- 15-14-14-14-15-14, 14th fret, G, root position, top note F#, barred
How to use Gmaj13
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Gmaj13 is Am7 to D7 — the ii and the V of G — and D7 shares its third and seventh with Am7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Gmaj13 belongs to D major (the IV, the subdominant), E minor (the ♭III), G major (the I, the tonic) and B minor (the ♭VI).
What to play over Gmaj13
Every note of Gmaj13 is in G major and G lydian.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Gmaj13 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Gmaj13
Change one note of Gmaj13 and you have Gmaj9 (drop the thirteenth), Gmaj11 (the thirteenth becomes the eleventh), G69 (drop the major seventh) or G13 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh).
Gmaj13 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major 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.