About Abmadd9 — drop 2 voicings
Abmadd9 is Ab, Cb, Eb and Bb — Abm with the ninth added, and no seventh.
It sounds sharp-edged. The ninth grinding a whole step under the minor third is the edge an m9 softens.
Abmadd9 notes and formula
| Ab | Cb | Eb | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 9 |
Minor tonic — a triad with one colour on it.
Also written Abm(add9), Abmin(add9) or Ab-add9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abmadd9
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
Abmadd9 has 13 of them, on the middle four strings, the top four strings and the bottom four strings, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: Ab in the bass, Cb in the bass, Eb in the bass and Bb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Bb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the middle 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 42x34x — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Abmadd9 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 2 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42x34x | 2nd fret | Ab, root position | Eb | all fretted |
| 466446 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | barred |
| xx6446 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| xx9896 | 6th fret | Cb, 1st inversion | Bb | all fretted |
| x-11-9-8-11-x | 8th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x-11-9-x-11-11 | 9th fret | Ab, root position | Eb | barred |
| x-14-13-13-11-x | 11th fret | Cb, 1st inversion | Bb | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 8 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Abmadd9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Abmadd9 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 Abmadd9 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 Abmadd9
Every note of Abmadd9 is in Ab dorian, Ab natural minor, Ab harmonic minor and Ab melodic minor.
Chords near Abmadd9
Change one note of Abmadd9 and you have Abm (drop the ninth), Absus2 (drop the minor third), Abm6 (the ninth becomes a sixth), Abm69 (add the sixth), Abm7 (the ninth becomes a flat seventh) or Abm9 (add the flat seventh).
Abmadd9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Abmadd9’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.