Abalt guitar chord
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. Because it costs no finger, it sounds a note the closed shape has none left for -- a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath. Either a familiar grip with open strings added, or a shape so sparse the open strings carry the chord. These belong to their key rather than to a shape, so D, A, G and E have many and Eb a handful.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Abalt — open string voicings
Abalt is Ab, C, E, Gb and A — Ab7 with every tension it can carry altered at once.
It sounds maximum tension, barely holding together. Not one chord but an instruction: take the root, third and flat seventh, add any two alterations, and let the rest go.
Abalt notes and formula
| Ab | C | E | Gb | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 | ♭7 | ♭9 |
Altered dominant — the hardest pull available.
Also written Ab7alt, Ab7altered or Ab altered dominant. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abalt
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. It costs no finger, so it can sound a note the closed shape has none left for: a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath.
These belong to their key rather than to a shape: they cannot be moved up the neck. D, A, G and E have many; E♭ has a handful.
Abalt has 5 of them, on strings 6-5-4-3-2-1, strings 6-5-4-3-2, strings 5-4-3-2-1 and the bottom four strings, from the 4th fret up to the 5th — every inversion the chord has: E in the bass and Bbb in the bass. The one to learn first is the E shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx6534 — low, at the 3rd fret. None of the shapes for Abalt uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 3rd fret. None of them needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 3rd fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43x534 | 3rd fret | Ab, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| xx6534 | 3rd fret | Ab, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| 4565x4 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| xx6798 | 6th fret | Ab, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-11-10-x-9-10 | 9th fret | Ab, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-11-10-13-13-10 | 10th fret | Ab, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-11-12-13-13-x | 11th fret | Ab, root position | C | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell and 13 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Abalt, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (D).
How to use Abalt
Abalt 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 Abalt
Every note of Abalt is in Ab altered.
Chords near Abalt
Change one note of Abalt and you have Abaug7 (drop the flat ninth), Abaug9 (the flat ninth becomes a ninth) or Ab7b9 (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth).
Abalt is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On Abalt’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.