B11 Chord on Guitar

1,008 guitar chords with several shapes each, finger numbers, difficulty and real sound, in any tuning.

B11 is a dominant eleventh chord made of 6 notes: B, D♯, F♯, A, C♯, E. It sounds thick and open, and you hear it in soul, funk and fusion, often played without the third. It is the V chord of E major and turns up in 2 other keys.

The library above opens on B11 with 14 shapes up and down the neck. Tap a shape to hear it, or play it one string at a time.

Notes in B11

Note	Degree	Interval from B	Semitones
B	1	root	0
D♯	3	major third	4
F♯	5	perfect fifth	7
A	♭7	minor seventh	10
C♯	9	major ninth	14
E	11	perfect eleventh	17

Formula: 1 – 3 – 5 – ♭7 – 9 – 11. On guitar the 5th is often left out of the bigger shapes without changing the chord.

How to play B11

Open positionBeginnerx21200

E-shape barre at fret 7Easy777877

Fret 11Easyx(14)(14)(14)(14)(11)

Fret 2Easyx2224x

Fret 7Easy7778xx

A-shape barre at fret 12Easyx(14)(13)(14)(12)(12)

E-shape barre at fret 4 (root on the 6th string), step by step

Lay your 1st finger (index) flat across the 5th string to the 4th string at the 4th fret.
2nd finger (middle): across the 2nd string and 1st string at the 5th fret (E, A).
3rd finger (ring): 6th string, 7th fret (B, the root).
4th finger (little): 3rd string, 8th fret (D♯, the major third).
Strum from the 6th string across all six strings.

Easier ways to play B11

Every full shape of B11 needs a barre or a stretch. In many songs you can also swap in Bmaj7, Bsus2, Bsus4, which share most of its notes and need no barre. If you want the real thing, the e-shape barre at fret 4 shape is the gentlest start.