The Dominant 13th chord is Based on A dominant 7th chord, but you add the following intervals to it: 9,11 and 13th. This gives you in total 7 different chord tones which basically would be every note of a major scale,or one of the modal scales derived from it. In particular the “Mixolydian” mode,because if we were to play every note from “mixolydian” mode in 3rds we would end up with the dominant 13 arpeggio. The following illustration demonstrates this. using the C dominant 13th chord,taken from notes of the “C mixolydian” modal scale.
When Playing Dominant 13th chords on the Guitar it is common to miss out notes to create new voicings that are physically and aurally practical. Let us take a look at a couple of voicings :
This voicing requires us to mute “A” string with our index finger,it works well when you need to play the bass note of the chord say for instance in a “Bossa Nova”
This one is more practical for smaller hands,by missing out the low bass strings we have a voicing suited to a band environment.
Now this one is a tricky stretch,you will need to barre the 3rd fret with your ring finger ( sorry about that) it has a “cool” sound,very funky !
Chord study: || G13 / / / | Bb13 / / / | Eb13 / / / | D9 / / /| |Db13 / / / | Db9 / / / | C6 / / /| C6 || © 2010 www.damienguitar.co.uk all rights reserved
Here's a slightly easier one,you can get away with playing this one without a barre on any strings,you can slide this chord up a semitone for a smooth effect.