Abm9 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 Abm9 — uncommon 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.
Pre-dominant or minor tonic — an m7’s job with more colour.
Abm9 notes and formula
| Ab | Cb | Eb | Gb | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 |
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
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep Cb and Gb (they fix the quality) and Bb (what the symbol is about). 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 Abm9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (Db) or the 13 (F).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 411102, open position, Ab, root position, top note Gb, barred
- 42x342, 2nd fret, Ab, root position, top note Gb, all fretted
- x24344, 2nd fret, Cb, 1st inversion, top note Ab, barred
- 464446, 4th fret, Ab, root position, top note Bb, barred
- 798897, 7th fret, Cb, 1st inversion, top note Cb, all fretted
- x-11-9-11-11-x, 9th fret, Ab, root position, top note Bb, barred
- x-13-13-13-12-14, 12th fret, Bb, 9th in the bass, top note Gb, barred
- x-x-13-15-12-14, 12th fret, Eb, 2nd inversion, top note Gb, all fretted
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 natural minor and Ab dorian.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Abm9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Abm9
Change one note of Abm9 and you have Abm69 (the flat seventh becomes the sixth), Abm7 (drop the ninth), Abm11 (add the eleventh), AbmMaj9 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh), Abmadd9 (drop the flat seventh) or Ab9 (the minor third becomes the major third).
Abm9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor 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.