My Guitar Notes

Eb11 — Eb dominant eleventh chord

A dominant ninth chord with the eleventh added. The eleventh is a semitone below the major third in the octave above it, and the two notes clash, so the third is normally omitted in performance and the chord is written 9sus4 or 11.

Symbol
Eb11
Root
Eb
Quality
Dominant eleventh
Family
extended
Notes
Eb F G Ab Bb Db
Degree formula
1 9 3 11 5 b7
Semitones from the root
0 2 4 5 7 10
Distinct pitch classes
6
Interval structure
Stacked from the root: 2 semitones, 2 semitones, 1 semitones, 2 semitones, 3 semitones
Notation
Written 11. In practice voiced without the third, which makes the same sound as a dominant ninth with a suspended fourth.
Key
Eb · Eb major / C minor key signature

Formula

The chord tones in order from the root, with the interval each one forms above it.

DegreeNoteSemitonesInterval from the root
1Eb0Perfect unison
9F2Major second
3G4Major third
11Ab5Perfect fourth
5Bb7Perfect fifth
b7Db10Minor seventh

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.

InversionBass noteDegree in the bassNotes above the bassSemitones above the bass
root positionEb1Eb – F – G – Ab – Bb – Db0 2 4 5 7 10
first inversionF9F – G – Ab – Bb – Db – Eb0 2 3 5 8 10
second inversionG3G – Ab – Bb – Db – Eb – F0 1 3 6 8 10
third inversionAb11Ab – Bb – Db – Eb – F – G0 2 5 7 9 11
fourth inversionBb5Bb – Db – Eb – F – G – Ab0 3 5 7 9 10
fifth inversionDbb7Db – Eb – F – G – Ab – Bb0 2 4 6 7 9

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)NotesDegreesBassSpan (frets)Sounding strings
111-11-11-12-11-13Eb Ab Db G Bb F1 11 b7 3 5 9Eb26
211-10-8-10-9-9Eb G Bb F Ab Db1 3 5 9 11 b7Eb36
311-11-8-10-8-9Eb Ab Bb F G Db1 11 5 9 3 b7Eb36
411-10-11-13-11-13Eb G Db Ab Bb F1 3 b7 11 5 9Eb36
511-8-8-12-9-9Eb F Bb G Ab Db1 9 5 3 11 b7Eb46
611-13-11-12-9-13Eb Bb Db G Ab F1 5 b7 3 11 9Eb46

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

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