Am69 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Am69 — drop 2 voicings
Am69 is A, C, E, F# and B — Am6 with the ninth added as well.
It sounds cool and entirely at rest. No seventh, so nothing leans: a common last chord of a minor tune.
Am69 notes and formula
| A | C | E | F# | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
Minor tonic — nothing in it is pulling.
Also written Am6/9, Amin6/9 or A-6/9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Am69
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
Am69 has 12 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 10th — every inversion the chord has: A in the bass, C in the bass, F# in the bass and B in the bass. The one to learn first is the A shape at the 3rd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
4 of them sit on the bottom four strings, 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 x04500 — no barre and 3 open strings. 1 of the 10 shapes here sits in open position. 6 of the 10 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 3rd fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x04500 | open position | A, root position | E | 3 open strings |
| 5344xx | 3rd fret | A, root position | B | all fretted |
| x34455 | 3rd fret | C, 1st inversion | A | all fretted |
| 5x4557 | 4th fret | A, root position | B | barred |
| 5x7577 | 5th fret | A, root position | B | barred |
| xx7577 | 5th fret | A, root position | B | barred |
| x77577 | 5th fret | E, 2nd inversion | B | barred |
| 807977 | 7th fret | C, 1st inversion | B | barred |
| 877977 | 7th fret | C, 1st inversion | B | barred |
| x-12-10-11-12-x | 10th fret | A, root position | B | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 9 drop 3, 12 rootless and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Am69, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (D).
How to use Am69
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Am69 is Bm7♭5 to E7♭9: the ii and the V of A minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Am69 belongs to E minor (the iv, the subdominant) and G major (the ii, the supertonic).
What to play over Am69
Every note of Am69 is in A dorian and A melodic minor.
Chords near Am69
Change one note of Am69 and you have Am6 (drop the ninth), Am9 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh), AmMaj9 (the sixth becomes a major seventh), Amadd9 (drop the sixth), A69 (the minor third becomes a major third) or Am/F# (drop the ninth).
Am69 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Am69’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.