guitar chord
C13
Seven notes in theory and four or five in anyone’s hands: root, third, seventh and thirteenth carry it.
Every fingering that fits a hand
x30355
hard · no 5
8a89a8
hard · barre · no 9
x35355
hard · barre · no 9
8a89ax
hard · barre · no 9
What is true of it
C13 is C, E, G, B♭, D and A — 1, 3, 5, b7, 9 and 13 counted from C.
On an instrument that cannot reach all 6, the 5, 9 and 1 go first, in that order.
The easiest of the 4 fingerings below is x30355: 4 fingers, held at the 3rd fret.
None of them uses an open string, so this chord moves up the neck unchanged — the same shape 1 fret higher is the chord a semitone above.
3 of the 4 need a barre.
It leaves out the 5. 6 strings cannot carry 6 notes, and the 5 is the one this chord can lose without changing what it is.
1 string stays silent.
Where its notes are on the neck
The brass dots are C, the root. Everything else is a chord tone with its degree printed in it.
With a different note underneath
C13/E
000310
C13/G
300310
C13/B♭
600030
An inversion is the same chord with a different note lowest. The name changes to a slash name because the bass is what a listener hears as the foundation.