Ab13sus4 — Ab dominant thirteenth suspended fourth chord
A dominant thirteenth chord with the third replaced by the fourth. The ninth and the thirteenth are both kept, so the chord is built on five or six notes.
- 1 = Ab
- 4 = Db
- 5 = Eb
- b7 = Gb
- 13 = F
- 9 = Bb
- Symbol
- Ab13sus4
- Root
- Ab
- Quality
- Dominant thirteenth suspended fourth
- Family
- suspended
- Notes
- Ab Db Eb Gb F Bb
- Degree formula
1 4 5 b7 13 9- Semitones from the root
0 2 5 7 9 10- Distinct pitch classes
- 6
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 5 semitones, 2 semitones, 3 semitones, 11 semitones, 5 semitones
- Notation
- Written 13sus4. A suspended dominant with the full upper structure, used where the dominant should not commit to major or minor.
- Key
- Ab · Ab major / F minor key signature
Formula
The chord tones in order from the root, with the interval each one forms above it.
| Degree | Note | Semitones | Interval from the root |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ab | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 4 | Db | 5 | Perfect fourth |
| 5 | Eb | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| b7 | Gb | 10 | Minor seventh |
| 13 | F | 9 | Major sixth |
| 9 | Bb | 2 | Major second |
Inversions
An inversion is the same set of notes with a different one in the bass. The last column gives the distance of each note above the bass note, in semitones.
| Inversion | Bass note | Degree in the bass | Notes above the bass | Semitones above the bass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| root position | Ab | 1 | Ab – Db – Eb – Gb – F – Bb | 0 5 7 10 9 2 |
| first inversion | Db | 4 | Db – Eb – Gb – F – Bb – Ab | 0 2 5 4 9 7 |
| second inversion | Eb | 5 | Eb – Gb – F – Bb – Ab – Db | 0 3 2 7 5 10 |
| third inversion | Gb | b7 | Gb – F – Bb – Ab – Db – Eb | 0 11 4 2 7 9 |
| fourth inversion | F | 13 | F – Bb – Ab – Db – Eb – Gb | 0 5 3 8 10 1 |
| fifth inversion | Bb | 9 | Bb – Ab – Db – Eb – Gb – F | 0 10 3 5 8 7 |
Playable voicings
These shapes were found by searching the fretboard of a standard-tuned guitar (E A D G B E) rather than copied from a chord book. The search allows every string to sound or to be muted, rejects any shape with a muted string between two sounding strings, rejects any shape whose fretted notes span more than four frets (a five-fret window), requires every chord tone to be present, and then sorts what remains with root-position shapes first and the most compact, lowest shapes next. The shapes shown are the first six of that ordering; other orderings are possible at the same frets.
| # | Shape (low string first) | Notes | Degrees | Bass | Span (frets) | Sounding strings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4-4-3-3-4-2 | Ab Db F Bb Eb Gb | 1 4 13 9 5 b7 | Ab | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 4-6-4-6-6-6 | Ab Eb Gb Db F Bb | 1 5 b7 4 13 9 | Ab | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 4-4-4-3-4-1 | Ab Db Gb Bb Eb F | 1 4 b7 9 5 13 | Ab | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 4-6-3-3-2-2 | Ab Eb F Bb Db Gb | 1 5 13 9 4 b7 | Ab | 4 | 6 |
| 5 | 4-6-3-6-7-6 | Ab Eb F Db Gb Bb | 1 5 13 4 b7 9 | Ab | 4 | 6 |
| 6 | 4-4-4-8-6-6 | Ab Db Gb Eb F Bb | 1 4 b7 5 13 9 | Ab | 4 | 6 |
Shape numbers run from the lowest string to the highest, so the left-hand number is the sixth string (low E) in standard tuning. Multiple shapes are listed because a chord can be voiced several ways, and because a lower position is not always the better sounding one.
Related chords and scales
- KeyEverything in Ab
- ScaleAb mixolydian
- ChordAb13
- ChordAb
- ChordAb7
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