AmMaj9 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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About AmMaj9 — drop 3 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
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.
AmMaj9 has 5 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 8th — every inversion the chord has: A in the bass, C 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 strings 6-4-3-2, 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, 7 drop 2, 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.