About Abadd9 — drop 3 voicings
Abadd9 is Ab, C, Eb and Bb — Ab with the ninth added, and no seventh.
It sounds bright and ringing. No seventh at all: that is what “add” means, and it is why this sounds open where a maj9 sounds lush.
Abadd9 notes and formula
| Ab | C | Eb | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
Tonic — a triad with one colour on it.
Also written Ab(add9), Abadd2 or Ab add nine. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abadd9
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.
Abadd9 has 8 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: Ab in the bass, C in the bass, Eb in the bass and Bb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Ab shape at the nut.
4 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 xx65x6 — no barre and only 3 fretted notes. None of the shapes for Abadd9 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 3rd fret. 2 of the 4 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 3rd fret to the 11th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43x344 | 3rd fret | Ab, root position | Ab | barred |
| xx65x6 | 5th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x-11-10-8-11-8 | 8th fret | Ab, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-11-10-x-11-11 | 10th fret | Ab, root position | Eb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 13 drop 2 voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Abadd9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Abadd9 is Bbm7 to Eb7 — the ii and the V of Ab — and Eb7 shares its third and seventh with Bbm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Abadd9 belongs to C minor (the ♭VI), C# major (the V), Eb major (the IV), F minor (the ♭III), Ab major (the I) and Bb minor (the ♭VII).
What to play over Abadd9
Every note of Abadd9 is in Ab major pentatonic, Ab major, Ab lydian, Ab mixolydian and Ab lydian dominant.
Chords near Abadd9
Change one note of Abadd9 and you have Ab (drop the ninth), Absus2 (drop the major third), Abmaj7 (the ninth becomes a major seventh), Abmaj9 (add the major seventh), Abmadd9 (the major third becomes a minor third) or Ab6 (the ninth becomes a sixth).
Abadd9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Abadd9’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.