A#maj7#11 — A# major seventh sharp eleventh chord
A major seventh chord with the eleventh raised. The sharp eleventh is a tritone above the root, so the chord carries the lydian sound rather than the plain major one.
- 1 = A#
- 3 = C##
- 5 = E#
- 7 = G##
- #11 = D##
- Symbol
- A#maj7#11
- Root
- A#
- Quality
- Major seventh sharp eleventh
- Family
- altered
- Notes
- A# C## E# G## D##
- Degree formula
1 3 5 7 #11- Semitones from the root
0 4 6 7 11- Distinct pitch classes
- 5
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 4 semitones, 3 semitones, 4 semitones, 7 semitones
- Notation
- Written maj7#11. The tonic chord of the lydian mode, common in jazz and in impressionist harmony.
- Key
- A# · Bb major / G 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 | A# | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 3 | C## | 4 | Major third |
| 5 | E# | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| 7 | G## | 11 | Major seventh |
| #11 | D## | 6 | Tritone |
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 | A# | 1 | A# – C## – E# – G## – D## | 0 4 7 11 6 |
| first inversion | C## | 3 | C## – E# – G## – D## – A# | 0 3 7 2 8 |
| second inversion | E# | 5 | E# – G## – D## – A# – C## | 0 4 11 5 9 |
| third inversion | G## | 7 | G## – D## – A# – C## – E# | 0 7 1 5 8 |
| fourth inversion | D## | #11 | D## – A# – C## – E# – G## | 0 6 10 1 5 |
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 | 6-7-7-7-6-6 | A# E A D F A# | 1 #11 7 3 5 1 | A# | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 6-7-7-7-6-5 | A# E A D F A | 1 #11 7 3 5 7 | A# | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 6-5-3-3-5-5 | A# D F A# E A | 1 3 5 1 #11 7 | A# | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 6-8-7-7-5-5 | A# F A D E A | 1 5 7 3 #11 7 | A# | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 6-7-8-7-6-5 | A# E A# D F A | 1 #11 1 3 5 7 | A# | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 6-8-7-7-5-6 | A# F A D E A# | 1 5 7 3 #11 1 | A# | 3 | 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 A#
- ScaleA# lydian
- ChordA#maj7
- ChordA#
- ChordA#7
Related