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If you’re looking to play rich and beautiful minor chords on piano, then look no further than minor 11th chords. In today’s lesson, Minor 11th Chords for Piano: The Complete Guide, Jonny May shares pro tips on how to play these gut-wrenching minor chords. You’ll learn:

• Intro to Minor 11th Chords
  • What are minor 11th chords?
• How to Construct Minor 11th Chords in 3 Steps
• Piano Chord Chart of All Minor 11th Chords
• 4 Gorgeous Minor 11th Voicings for Piano
• 4 Beautiful Progressions with Minor 11th Chords

Intro to Minor 11th Chords

If you listen to contemporary gospel, R&B, neo soul or modern jazz, then you’ve likely heard the warm and expressive sound of minor 11th chords. In fact, the complex colors of minor 11th chords are a bit difficult to describe, as they’re simultaneously dark and luminous. Perhaps that’s what gives them such a gut-wrenching vibe. One thing is for certain though…minor 11th chords convey a truly professional piano sound. However, after today’s lesson, even beginners will be able to apply these expressive chords to their playing by simply combining basic triads that they already know.

If you’re already PWJ member, then be sure to download the lesson sheet PDF and backing track for this lesson. These resources appear at the bottom of this page after logging in with your membership. In addition, PWJ members can also easily transpose the lesson sheet to any key using our Smart Sheet Music.

What are minor 11th chords?

By definition, a minor 11th chord results when the chord extension of an 11th is added to a minor 7th chord. Therefore, the essential tones of a minor 11th chord are the root, the♭3, the ♭7 and the 11th. Thus, a Cm11 chord symbol does not always mean that the 9th is included. In addition, the 5th of the chord can be also omitted without substantially changing the overall color. Examples of chord symbols for minor 11th chords include Cm11, C–11, Cmin11 and Cmi11.

Quick & Easy Chord Hack for Minor 11th Chords

In the next section, we’ll talk about which scales produce minor 11th chords. In the meantime, here is a simple chord hack that will allow you to quickly build any minor 11th chord.

Since a basic minor 11th chord contains six notes, we can think of any minor 11th chord as a triad on top of a triad. The bottom triad, which you’ll play with your left hand, is an ordinary minor triad. Then, simply add a major triad in the right hand on the ♭7. For example, Cm11 is like a B♭ major triad on top of a C minor triad.

How to Construct Minor 11th Chords in 3 Steps

Perhaps your wondering, “Which scale do minor 11th chords come from?” Another way to frame this question would be, “What improv scale goes with a minor 11th chord?” In this section, we’ll go beyond the simple “chord hack” mentioned earlier to unpack these sorts of questions.

There are actually a couple different minor scales that produce minor 11th chords. In particular, the Dorian Scale and the Natural Minor Scale both give us a minor 11th chord. For the purpose of today’s lesson, we’ll use the Dorian scale, which we can build using the scale formula 1–2–♭3–4–5–6–♭7 (as compared to the major scale).

Step 1: Start with the Parent Scale

Let’s say we want to build a Cm11 chord. In that case, our first step is to start with the C Dorian Scale, which contains the notes C–D–E♭–F–G–A–B♭.

Step 2: Skip Every Other Note of the Scale

Once we’ve identified the parent scale, the next step is to play every other note of the scale. This transforms the scale into an arpeggio, a musical term which means “broken chord.” When we play every other note in this manner, the seven scale tones occur in a different order. For example, an arpeggio gives us the following note order: 1–3–5–7–2–4–6. However, notice that the 2nd, 4th and 6th occur as compound intervals, which means that they are more than an octave above the 1st note, which we call the root.

The diagram below illustrates that the compound equivalents for the 2nd, 4th and 6th are the 9th, 11th and 13th. In jazz theory, we use the term chord extensions or upper extensions to refer to the 9th, 11th and 13th. These are optional color notes that can be added to extend a minor 7th chord.

Step 3: Build the Chord Up to the 11th

So far, we’ve taken the seven scale tones from our parent scale and arranged them into four chord tones (root-3rd-5th-7th) and three optional chord extensions (9th-11th-13). The final step to create a minor 11th chord is to simply play all of the notes of the arpeggio simultaneously, up to the 11th. That is essentially what the chord symbol Cm11 means.

By using the 3 simple steps above, you’ll be able to construct any minor 11th chord on piano in its basic form. In fact, these chords are quite usable when voiced in this manner. However, there are several other voicing considerations to be aware of when playing minor 11th chords on piano. For example, it isn’t always necessary to play all six notes when you see a minor 11th chord symbol.

Commonly Omitted Notes in Minor 11th Chords

When it comes to voicing minor 11th chords, some of the chord tones are optional. In particular, the 5th and the 9th can be omitted and you still technically have a minor 11th chord. Between these two optional notes, the color of the 9th is a bit easier to hear as to when it is present or absent from the chord. For this reason, some publishers use the chord symbol Cm7(11) to indicate a minor 11th chord without the 9th and Cm11 to indicate a minor 11th chord with the 9th. However, this practice is not universal. Frankly, it’s often up to each player as to whether or not to include the 5th and/or the 9th.

These Are Not Minor 11th Chords

For the sake of clarity, Jonny also covers three incorrect applications of note omissions on minor 11th chords in today’s lesson. For example, if you remove the root, you don’t have a minor 11th chord at all. Next, if you omit the ♭3, then you’re actually playing a C7(sus4). And if you don’t have the ♭7 in the chord, then the proper chord symbol is Cm(add4).

To explore more considerations about chord voicing in general, check out our lesson on Piano Chord Secrets—11 Mistakes to Avoid (Beg/Int).

Piano Chord Chart of All Minor 11th Chords

For your reference, here is a complete Piano Chord Chart of All Minor 11th Chords. You’ll see the chord symbol followed by the specific notes on the piano for each minor 11th chord.

The chart above shows all twelve minor 11th chords on piano according to their most basic construction. In the next section, you’ll learn some more advanced minor 11th voicings that sound amazing on piano!

4 Gorgeous Minor 11th Chord Voicings for Piano

Now that you know how to construct all twelve minor 11th chords on piano, let’s examine some advanced minor 11th voicings. We’ve included four of the most common minor 11th voicings in this section. Notice that in each of these voicings, the ♭3 and 11th are arranged in the same octave so that they create a whole tone cluster, which results in a dense chord sound with rich overtones. Even though most of these voicings do not contain the 9th, it can certainly be added in the left hand in the lower register or in the right hand in the middle register.

Note: we’re using Dm11 in this section because Dm11 contains all white keys, which is easier to reach for pianists with smaller hands.

As you can hear, these voicings are quite rich and gut-wrenching…just as Jonny described! In the final section of today’s lesson, we’ll play some hip chord progressions that use these beautiful minor 11th voicings.

4 Beautiful Progressions with Minor 11th Chords

If you are a singer-songwriter, you can opt to apply the sound minor 11th chords to just about any diatonic progression in which you would normally use a minor 7th chord. However, in this section, we’ll examine four unique chord progressions that use minor 11th chords exclusively. These progressions combine different minor 11th chords together using a common tone on top. In fact, some the chords that have been paired together are not even from the same key! However, because they share a common tone on top, the ear hears them as compatible, even though the harmonic movement is perhaps a bit surprising.

Let’s discuss the first example in detail. Progression 1 is label “11 to 9.” This indicates that first chord in this progression (Dm11) has the 11th on top (the note G). Then, the next chord (Fm11) has the same G on top; however, it’s now the 9th. Notice, you’d be hard-pressed to say what key this progression is in. That’s because there is no major key or minor key that contains both of these chords. One option is to analyze it as movement from Ⅱm¹¹ to Ⅳm¹¹ in C, which can be explained with modal interchange. Nevertheless, however you hear it, the progression works because of the common tone on top.

After we demonstrate each progression in isolation, we’ll play all four progressions consecutively with the backing track.

 Progression 1: 11 to 9

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Progression 2: 7 to 3

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Progression 3: 7 to 9

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Progression 4: 11 to 7

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Minor 11th Progressions with Backing Track

Conclusion

Congratulations, you’ve completed today’s lesson on Minor 11th Chords for Piano: The Complete Guide. You can rest assured that as you begin to integrate these chords to your playing, you’ll be turning heads and wrenching guts at the same time!

If you enjoyed today’s lesson, then you’re also likely to enjoy the following PWJ Resources:

Thanks for learning with us today! We’ll see you next time.

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