Eleventh Chord
A ninth chord with an eleventh stacked on top
Related
An eleventh chord stacks one more third above a ninth chord. The natural eleventh lies a semitone from the third, and over a major triad the two clash as a minor ninth; players therefore raise it to a sharp eleventh or omit the third.
Minor and dominant elevenths are the common forms. In a minor eleventh the minor third and the eleventh are a major ninth apart, so the friction is gentler; a dominant eleventh often drops the third and sounds close to a suspension. Whether the eleventh sounds depends on the voicing, not on the symbol alone.
It differs from a suspended chord in keeping the seventh and ninth: a suspension replaces one chord tone, while an eleventh chord extends the stack. An added eleventh is different again, since it has neither seventh nor ninth.
Sources
- 十一和弦的叠置与音级冲突，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Chord"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.