AmMaj9 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 AmMaj9 — drop 2 voicings
AmMaj9 is A, C, E, G# and B — AmMaj7 with the ninth added on top.
It sounds the same unease with more colour over it. The ninth softens the edge without resolving anything.
AmMaj9 notes and formula
| A | C | E | G# | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Minor tonic — melodic minor, extended.
Also written AmM9, Am(maj9) or A-Δ9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play AmMaj9
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.
AmMaj9 has 7 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, G# in the bass and B in the bass. The one to learn first is the B shape at the nut.
3 of them sit on the top 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 x06504 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 4 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 3rd fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 53x454 | 3rd fret | A, root position | G# | all fretted |
| x06504 | open position | A, root position | G# | 2 open strings |
| 5364xx | 3rd fret | A, root position | B | all fretted |
| 576557 | 5th fret | A, root position | B | barred |
| x09998 | 8th fret | A, root position | C | barred |
| 777998 | 7th fret | B, 9th in the bass | C | barred |
| x-12-10-13-12-x | 10th fret | A, root position | B | all fretted |
| 12-15-14-13-12-12 | 12th fret | E, 2nd inversion | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 5 drop 3, 14 rootless and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of AmMaj9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (D) and the 13 (F#).
How to use AmMaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on AmMaj9 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.
What to play over AmMaj9
Every note of AmMaj9 is in A harmonic minor and A melodic minor.
Chords near AmMaj9
Change one note of AmMaj9 and you have Amaj9 (the minor third becomes a major third), Am69 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), Am9 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh), AmMaj7 (drop the ninth), AmMaj11 (add the fourth) or Amadd9 (drop the major seventh).
AmMaj9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On AmMaj9’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.