C Dominant 13th (C13)

1+3+5+b7+9+11+13
CEGDFABb
4 4
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Notes in C Dominant 13th

C (root)EGBbDFA

Inversions

Same notes as C Dominant 13th, with a different chord tone as the lowest note. Useful for smoother movement between chords instead of jumping around the keyboard.

Root position

C in the bass

CEGDFABb

1st inversion

E in the bass

EGDFACBb

2nd inversion

G in the bass

GDFACEBb

3rd inversion

Bb in the bass

DFACEGBb

4th inversion

D in the bass

DFACEGBb

5th inversion

F in the bass

FACEGDBb

6th inversion

A in the bass

ACEGDFBb

Open voicings

A close-position chord like C Dominant 13th can sound cluttered in the middle of the keyboard. Jazz players open it up by dropping one note down an octave, spreading the same notes wider without changing the chord.

Drop 2

C on the bottom

CEFGDABb

Drop 3

C on the bottom

CDEGFABb

The notes C, E, G, Bb, D, F and A make up C Dominant 13th.

The fullest dominant chord on the page, stacking every odd-numbered extension on top of a plain dominant seventh. Playing all seven notes at once gets muddy fast, so most pianists quietly drop the ninth and eleventh and voice just the root, third, seventh and thirteenth.

Difficulty: Advanced. Category: Extended chords. Click any key on the diagram above to hear that single note.