F#7#11 — F# dominant seventh sharp eleventh chord
A dominant seventh chord with the eleventh raised. The sharp eleventh is a tritone above the root, which is why the chord is stable enough to hold: the usual clash between the third and the eleventh is gone.
- 1 = F#
- 3 = A#
- 5 = C#
- b7 = E
- #11 = B#
- Symbol
- F#7#11
- Root
- F#
- Quality
- Dominant seventh sharp eleventh
- Family
- altered
- Notes
- F# A# C# E B#
- Degree formula
1 3 5 b7 #11- Semitones from the root
0 4 6 7 10- Distinct pitch classes
- 5
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 4 semitones, 3 semitones, 3 semitones, 8 semitones
- Notation
- Written 7#11. A lydian dominant colour, common as the dominant of a chord a fifth below and in tritone substitutions.
- Key
- F# · F# major / D# 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 | F# | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 3 | A# | 4 | Major third |
| 5 | C# | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| b7 | E | 10 | Minor seventh |
| #11 | B# | 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 | F# | 1 | F# – A# – C# – E – B# | 0 4 7 10 6 |
| first inversion | A# | 3 | A# – C# – E – B# – F# | 0 3 6 2 8 |
| second inversion | C# | 5 | C# – E – B# – F# – A# | 0 3 11 5 9 |
| third inversion | E | b7 | E – B# – F# – A# – C# | 0 8 2 6 9 |
| fourth inversion | B# | #11 | B# – F# – A# – C# – E | 0 6 10 1 4 |
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 | 2-3-2-3-2-2 | F# C E A# C# F# | 1 #11 b7 3 5 1 | F# | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 14-15-14-15-14-14 | F# C E A# C# F# | 1 #11 b7 3 5 1 | F# | 1 | 6 |
| 3 | 2-3-2-3-2-0 | F# C E A# C# E | 1 #11 b7 3 5 b7 | F# | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 2-4-2-3-1-2 | F# C# E A# C F# | 1 5 b7 3 #11 1 | F# | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 14-13-11-11-13-12 | F# A# C# F# C E | 1 3 5 1 #11 b7 | F# | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 14-15-14-15-14-12 | F# C E A# C# E | 1 #11 b7 3 5 b7 | F# | 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 F#
- ScaleF# lydian dominant
- ChordF#7♭9
- ChordF#
- ChordF#7
Related