# Constructing Full 13th Chords on 7 String



## Yetirat376 (Jul 3, 2011)

Hello! When I used to play my six string, I would have to omit notes when playing 13th chords as there weren't enough strings on my guitar to play the full chord. How do I form full 13th chords on my seven string?


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## Duelbart (Jul 3, 2011)

Well, you need to tap with right hand, or have 7 fingers on the left hand


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## Yetirat376 (Jul 3, 2011)

I was thinking I could bar some of the notes with my left hand. My seven string is tuned (A E A D G B E).


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## SirMyghin (Jul 3, 2011)

The idea is probably much cooler conceptually than sonically. I mean sound the entire scale with a likely flat 7th at once is kind of useless. I tend to take a much more minimalistic approach to chords however, less is more. The less you put in a chord, the more options you leave available that is, typically.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Jul 3, 2011)

I don't know why you'd want to do the full voicing, as they're a pain in the ass, but here you go:


```
Emaj13

e-5
b-4
G-4
D-4
A-4
E-4
B-5
```


```
E13

e-5
b-7
G-6
D-6
A-5
E-7
B-5
```


```
Em13

e-5
b-7
G-6
D-5
A-5
E-7
B-5
```

And you can figure the rest out.


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## Duelbart (Jul 3, 2011)

SirMyghin said:


> The idea is probably much cooler conceptually than sonically. I mean sound the entire scale with a likely flat 7th at once is kind of useless. I tend to take a much more minimalistic approach to chords however, less is more. The less you put in a chord, the more options you leave available that is, typically.



And applying these huge barre chords in a song setting wouldn't be worth it (at least for me).


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## Pooluke41 (Jul 3, 2011)

For a Minor 13th you can go





E:5
B:5
G:4
D:4
A:3
E:3


The high e is the Root for somereason...


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## Solodini (Jul 4, 2011)

Try playing about with open strings, as well. With 8 string chords it's probably not that useful for us to list shapes as, over that size of neck, there'll likely be lots which one set of hands could reach but another couldn't. To voice a full 13 which sounds nice would likely require a combination of all of the above. As others have said, it probably wouldn't work brilliantly within a piece for performance beyond one chord at a time.

You'll probably end up coming back to chords with omissions after a while with full chords. It's the omissions which give the chord most of its character, main voicing aside.


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## Trespass (Jul 16, 2011)

As a pianist, this isn't hard to do. 

I remember trying to voice these chords so I could start writing with them, and couldn't get anything to sound good. Keeping in all of the notes just produces mud. Thirteens are just sixths voiced above the seventh. Adding in the nine usually helps.

On piano, a beautiful left hand jazz 13th voicing is 

E -13th
B - 3rd
A - 9th
F - 7th

Bass player - G (root)

(G13)

How late bebop/early contemporary jazz pianists voice their left hand chords is really interesting. No root or fifth at all, the bass player handles it if he chooses. This gets progressively more harmonically ambiguous until your doing "So What" pentatonic stacks, McCoy Tyner 4th stacks, or just go into chord clusters that give the listen the impression of the chord and the parent scale/key.


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## KingAenarion (Jul 17, 2011)

To be honest I don't know why you'd want to... unless it's a solo guitar piece, you can form the chord between multiple instruments... like good Jazz players do


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## stuglue (Jul 21, 2011)

You don't need to use all the extensions to voice this chord, in fact the more you use the worse it will sound as the intervals are so close.
You can leave out the 5th and 11th as they are neutral.
Try to spread out the voicing that way it won't sound so muddy


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## in-pursuit (Jul 21, 2011)

as said previously by most people already, notes are ommitted from 13ths for a very good reason when playing guitar. while the range on a guitar is wide enough to accomodate the notes in a comfortable sounding manner, it's physically impossible to play the voicings required to get a wide enough spacing between the notes and it all just turns to mush. based on the assumption that you're using this for jazz I'll give you a very important hint, don't ever play the 5th of a dominant chord unless it's altered or you're using it specifically in chord/melody playing or if it's absolutely essential for voice leading. this is especially important if you're playing in a group. if the 5th of a chord isn't contributing anything special to the progression, by including it you're only limiting your options for including more effective chord tones.


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