Abmaj9 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About Abmaj9 — drop 3 voicings
Abmaj9 is Ab, C, Eb, G and Bb — Abmaj7 with the ninth stacked above it.
It sounds a maj7 with more air in it. The ninth argues with nothing here, so it works anywhere a maj7 does.
Abmaj9 notes and formula
| Ab | C | Eb | G | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Tonic — an extended resting chord.
Also written AbM9, AbΔ9, Abma9 or Ab major 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abmaj9
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.
Abmaj9 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: Ab in the bass, C in the bass, G in the bass and Bb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Bb shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, 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 xx1313 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Abmaj9 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 6 of the 11 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x11113 | 1st fret | Bb, 9th in the bass | G | barred |
| xx1313 | 1st fret | Eb, 2nd inversion | G | all fretted |
| 411113 | 1st fret | Ab, root position | G | barred |
| 435343 | 3rd fret | Ab, root position | G | barred |
| 465546 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| xx5546 | 4th fret | G, 3rd inversion | Bb | all fretted |
| xx6586 | 5th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| 866886 | 6th fret | C, 1st inversion | Bb | barred |
| x-11-8-8-8-8 | 8th fret | Ab, root position | C | barred |
| x-11-10-12-11-x | 10th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| 11-11-10-12-11-x | 10th fret | Eb, 2nd inversion | Bb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 12 drop 2 and 14 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Abmaj9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (D) and the 13 (F).
How to use Abmaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Abmaj9 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 Abmaj9 belongs to C minor (the ♭VI), Eb major (the IV, the subdominant), F minor (the ♭III) and Ab major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Abmaj9
Every note of Abmaj9 is in Ab major and Ab lydian.
Chords near Abmaj9
Change one note of Abmaj9 and you have Abmaj7 (drop the ninth), Abmaj11 (add the fourth), Abmaj13 (add the sixth), AbmMaj9 (the major third becomes a minor third), Abadd9 (drop the major seventh) or Ab69 (the major seventh becomes a sixth).
Abmaj9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Abmaj9’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.