Aadd9 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About Aadd9 — drop 3 voicings
Aadd9 is A, C#, E and B — A with the ninth added, and no seventh.
It sounds bright and ringing. No seventh at all: that is what “add” means, and it is why this sounds open where a maj9 sounds lush.
Aadd9 notes and formula
| A | C# | E | B |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
Tonic — a triad with one colour on it.
Also written A(add9), Aadd2 or A add nine. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Aadd9
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
Aadd9 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from the 2nd fret up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: A in the bass, C# in the bass, E in the bass and B in the bass. The one to learn first is the B shape at the 2nd fret.
5 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with x02420 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 5 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 5 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x02420 | open position | A, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| 54x455 | 4th fret | A, root position | A | barred |
| xx76x7 | 6th fret | A, root position | B | all fretted |
| x-12-11-9-12-9 | 9th fret | A, root position | C# | all fretted |
| x-12-11-x-12-12 | 11th fret | A, root position | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 13 drop 2 and 3 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Aadd9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Aadd9 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 Aadd9 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 Aadd9
Every note of Aadd9 is in A major pentatonic, A major, A lydian, A mixolydian and A lydian dominant.
Chords near Aadd9
Change one note of Aadd9 and you have A (drop the ninth), Asus2 (drop the major third), Asus2sus4 (the major third becomes a fourth), Amaj7 (the ninth becomes a major seventh), Amaj9 (add the major seventh) or Amadd9 (the major third becomes a minor third).
Aadd9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Aadd9’s sound and use this page follows Robert Rawlins & Nor Eddine Bahha, Jazzology (Hal Leonard, 2005). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.