A69 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About A69 — shell voicings
A69 is A, C#, E, F# and B — A6 with the ninth added as well.
It sounds wide and entirely at rest. The modern way to voice a tonic when a triad is too bare and a maj7 too pointed.
A69 notes and formula
| A | C# | E | F# | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
Tonic — it commits to nothing.
Also written A6/9, A6add9 or A six nine. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play A69
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
A69 has 3 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from the 4th fret up to the 11th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the A shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with x04422 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 6 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x22222 | 2nd fret | B, 9th in the bass | F# | barred |
| x04422 | open position | A, root position | F# | 1 open string |
| 544455 | 4th fret | A, root position | A | barred |
| xx7677 | 6th fret | A, root position | B | barred |
| x77677 | 6th fret | E, 2nd inversion | B | barred |
| x-9-9-9-10-9 | 9th fret | F#, 6th in the bass | C# | barred |
| x-12-9-11-10-9 | 9th fret | A, root position | C# | all fretted |
| x-12-11-11-12-12 | 11th fret | A, root position | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 12 drop 2, 9 drop 3, 12 rootless and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of A69, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (D#).
How to use A69
How you get to it. The turn that lands on A69 is Bm7 to E7 — the ii and the V of A — and E7 shares its third and seventh with Bm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of A69 belongs to C# minor (the ♭VI), D major (the V), E major (the IV), F# minor (the ♭III), A major (the I) and B minor (the ♭VII).
What to play over A69
A69 is every note of the A major pentatonic, and nothing else. It also sits inside A major, A lydian, A mixolydian and A lydian dominant.
Chords near A69
Change one note of A69 and you have Amaj9 (the sixth becomes a major seventh), Amaj13 (add the major seventh), Am69 (the major third becomes a minor third), Aadd9 (drop the sixth), A6 (drop the ninth) or A9 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh).
A69 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On A69’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Piano Book (Sher Music, 1989). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.