Ab7#9 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Ab7#9 — uncommon voicings
Ab7#9 is Ab, C, Eb, Gb and B — Ab9 with the ninth raised a semitone.
It sounds gritty and contradictory. The minor third sounding over the major third; every guitarist knows it as the Hendrix chord.
Altered dominant — dominant function with a blues third on top.
Ab7#9 notes and formula
| Ab | C | Eb | Gb | B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | ♯9 |
Also written Ab7(#9), Ab7+9 or Ab7♯9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ab7#9
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep C, Gb and B (they fix the quality). Let Eb and Ab go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play Ab7#9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (D), the b13 (Fb) or the 13 (F).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x21112, 1st fret, B, 9th in the bass, top note Gb, barred
- 4344xx, 3rd fret, Ab, root position, top note B, barred
- x34444, 3rd fret, C, 1st inversion, top note Ab, barred
- 464577, 4th fret, Ab, root position, top note B, all fretted
- 464547, 4th fret, Ab, root position, top note B, barred
- xx6577, 5th fret, Ab, root position, top note B, all fretted
- x66577, 5th fret, Eb, 2nd inversion, top note B, all fretted
- x-11-10-11-12-x, 10th fret, Ab, root position, top note B, all fretted
How to use Ab7#9
Ab7#9 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at Db — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
What to play over Ab7#9
Every note of Ab7#9 is in Ab half-whole diminished.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Ab7#9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Ab7#9
Change one note of Ab7#9 and you have Abm7 (drop the major third), Abm9 (the major third becomes the ninth), Ab7 (drop the sharp ninth), Ab9 (the sharp ninth becomes the ninth) or Ab7b9 (the sharp ninth becomes the flat ninth).
Ab7#9 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.