Amadd9 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
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Amadd9 — drop 2 voicings
Amadd9 is A, C, E and B — Am with the ninth added, and no seventh.
It sounds sharp-edged. The ninth grinding a whole step under the minor third is the edge an m9 softens.
Amadd9 notes and formula
| A | C | E | B |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 9 |
Minor tonic — a triad with one colour on it.
Also written Am(add9), Amin(add9) or A-add9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Amadd9
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.
Amadd9 has 13 of them, on the middle four strings, the top four strings and the bottom four strings, from open position up to the 13th — 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 nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the middle 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 x02410 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x02410 | open position | A, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| 53x45x | 3rd fret | A, root position | E | all fretted |
| 577557 | 5th fret | A, root position | B | barred |
| xx7557 | 5th fret | A, root position | B | all fretted |
| xx7908 | 7th fret | A, root position | C | 1 open string |
| x-x-10-9-10-7 | 7th fret | C, 1st inversion | B | all fretted |
| x-12-10-9-12-x | 9th fret | A, root position | B | all fretted |
| x-12-10-x-12-12 | 10th fret | A, root position | E | barred |
| x-15-14-14-12-x | 12th fret | C, 1st inversion | B | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 9 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Amadd9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Amadd9 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 Amadd9 belongs to C major (the vi, the submediant), E minor (the iv, the subdominant), G major (the ii, the supertonic) and A minor (the i, the tonic).
What to play over Amadd9
Every note of Amadd9 is in A dorian, A natural minor, A harmonic minor and A melodic minor.
Chords near Amadd9
Change one note of Amadd9 and you have Am (drop the ninth), Asus2 (drop the minor third), Asus2sus4 (the minor third becomes a fourth), Am6 (the ninth becomes a sixth), Am69 (add the sixth) or Am7 (the ninth becomes a flat seventh).
Amadd9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Amadd9’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.