Abm9 guitar chord
The root left to the bass player. Frees a finger for a tension.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Abm9 — rootless voicings
Abm9 is Ab, Cb, Eb, Gb and Bb — Abm7 with the ninth stacked above it.
It sounds warm, and considerably richer than an m7. The standard voicing for a ii chord once the plain one has been played enough.
Abm9 notes and formula
| Ab | Cb | Eb | Gb | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 |
Pre-dominant or minor tonic — an m7’s job with more colour.
Also written Abmin9, Ab-9 or Ab minor 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abm9
Leave the root to the bass player. In a band nobody misses it, and the ear supplies it from the guide tones anyway.
The finger it frees goes to a tension, which is why these sound richer than the shape they came from rather than thinner.
Abm9 has 13 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: Cb in the bass, Eb in the bass, Gb in the bass and Bb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Eb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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 42x342 — no barre and down at the nut. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 5 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 411102 | open position | Ab, root position | Gb | barred |
| 42x342 | 2nd fret | Ab, root position | Gb | all fretted |
| x24344 | 2nd fret | Cb, 1st inversion | Ab | barred |
| 464446 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | barred |
| 798897 | 7th fret | Cb, 1st inversion | Cb | all fretted |
| x-11-9-11-11-x | 9th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | barred |
| x-13-13-13-12-14 | 12th fret | Bb, 9th in the bass | Gb | barred |
| x-x-13-15-12-14 | 12th fret | Eb, 2nd inversion | Gb | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 12 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Abm9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (Db) and the 13 (F).
How to use Abm9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Abm9 is Bbm7♭5 to Eb7♭9: the ii and the V of Ab minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Abm9 belongs to Eb minor (the iv, the subdominant), F# major (the ii, the supertonic), Ab minor (the i, the tonic) and B major (the vi, the submediant).
What to play over Abm9
Every note of Abm9 is in Ab dorian and Ab natural minor.
Chords near Abm9
Change one note of Abm9 and you have Abm69 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth), Abm7 (drop the ninth), Abm11 (add the fourth), AbmMaj9 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), Abmadd9 (drop the flat seventh) or Ab9 (the minor third becomes a major third).
Abm9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Abm9’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.