Bb13sus4 — Bb 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 = Bb
- 4 = Eb
- 5 = F
- b7 = Ab
- 13 = G
- 9 = C
- Symbol
- Bb13sus4
- Root
- Bb
- Quality
- Dominant thirteenth suspended fourth
- Family
- suspended
- Notes
- Bb Eb F Ab G C
- 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
- Bb · 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 | Bb | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 4 | Eb | 5 | Perfect fourth |
| 5 | F | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| b7 | Ab | 10 | Minor seventh |
| 13 | G | 9 | Major sixth |
| 9 | C | 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 | Bb | 1 | Bb – Eb – F – Ab – G – C | 0 5 7 10 9 2 |
| first inversion | Eb | 4 | Eb – F – Ab – G – C – Bb | 0 2 5 4 9 7 |
| second inversion | F | 5 | F – Ab – G – C – Bb – Eb | 0 3 2 7 5 10 |
| third inversion | Ab | b7 | Ab – G – C – Bb – Eb – F | 0 11 4 2 7 9 |
| fourth inversion | G | 13 | G – C – Bb – Eb – F – Ab | 0 5 3 8 10 1 |
| fifth inversion | C | 9 | C – Bb – Eb – F – Ab – G | 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 | 6-6-5-5-6-4 | Bb Eb G C F Ab | 1 4 13 9 5 b7 | Bb | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 6-8-6-8-8-8 | Bb F Ab Eb G C | 1 5 b7 4 13 9 | Bb | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 6-6-6-5-6-3 | Bb Eb Ab C F G | 1 4 b7 9 5 13 | Bb | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 6-8-5-5-4-4 | Bb F G C Eb Ab | 1 5 13 9 4 b7 | Bb | 4 | 6 |
| 5 | 6-8-5-8-9-8 | Bb F G Eb Ab C | 1 5 13 4 b7 9 | Bb | 4 | 6 |
| 6 | 6-6-6-10-8-8 | Bb Eb Ab F G C | 1 4 b7 5 13 9 | Bb | 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 Bb
- ScaleBb mixolydian
- ChordBb13
- ChordBb
- ChordBb7
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