F#13 Chord on Guitar
F#13 = F# – A# – C# – E – G# – D# (Root, Major 3rd, Perfect 5th, Minor 7th, Major 9th, Major 13th)
F#13 sits at the same second-fret barre as F#9, but the two top strings swap roles: where F#9 raises the high e string to add the ninth, F#13 instead raises the B string to add the thirteenth and leaves the top string on the root. It's the mirror image of the ninth voicing rather than a wholly new shape, which makes the two chords easy to compare once you know one of them.
The notes sounding are F#-A#-C#-E-D#: root, major third, minor seventh, and thirteenth, with the fifth swapped out for that thirteenth on the B string. A dominant 13 is the richest extension commonly used before the color gets muddy, and jazz comping treats it as close to interchangeable with a plain dominant 7 in most progressions — it's a fuller-sounding stand-in for F#7 wherever a V chord needs to feel a little more sophisticated. As the dominant of B major, it carries the same resolving pull toward B, just dressed in a jazzier coat.
Fingerings
Barre (2nd fret)
How to Practice It
If F#9 is already comfortable, work directly from that shape and retrain the top two strings: instead of moving the high e string up, leave it on the barre fret and move the B string up two frets instead. That string-swap habit — recognizing which string needs to move for which extension — is worth drilling deliberately, since 9 and 13 chords get confused by ear far more often than by hand once the shapes are known. Practice resolving F#13 to B major to internalize the sound of the extension collapsing back into a plain triad.
Common Progressions
- F#13 – B (V13 – I in B major, a jazz-comping cadence)
- G#m7 – C#7 – F#13 – B (ii – V/V – V13 – I, a jazz turnaround)
- F#13 – E13 – A (a funk/jazz vamp moving the same shape down a fifth)
- B – F#13 – B (I – V13 – I, using the 13 as a brief color departure)
FAQ
- How is F#13 different from F#9 in the fingering?
- The two top strings trade roles: F#9 raises the high e string to sound the ninth and leaves the B string on the fifth, while F#13 raises the B string to sound the thirteenth and leaves the high e string on the root.
- Does F#13 include the ninth as well?
- Not in this six-string voicing — the fifth is replaced by the thirteenth, and there's no string left to also sound the ninth, so this is a 13 chord in function but a leaner four-tone realization of it.
- Why do jazz players favor 13 chords over plain dominant 7ths?
- The extra color tone gives a fuller, more harmonically dense sound without changing the chord's basic dominant function, so it can substitute for a plain V7 in most progressions while sounding more considered.
- Is F#13 hard for a beginner?
- It's approachable once F# major and F#7 barres are solid, since it's built from the same hand position with a single finger repositioned; the main challenge is ear-training which string carries which extension, not the physical stretch.
- What's the enharmonic thirteenth note in this chord called otherwise?
- D#, a major sixth above the root — thirteenths and sixths are the same pitch class, the different name just signals whether the chord is being thought of as a stacked-tertian extension (13) or a simple added color (6).
Related: how chords are built, chord finder.