Abmaj9 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 Abmaj9 — uncommon 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.
Tonic — an extended resting chord.
Abmaj9 notes and formula
| Ab | C | Eb | G | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
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
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep C and G (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 Abmaj9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (D) or the 13 (F).
All 11 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x11113, 1st fret, Bb, 9th in the bass, top note G, barred
- xx1313, 1st fret, Eb, 2nd inversion, top note G, all fretted
- 411113, 1st fret, Ab, root position, top note G, barred
- 435343, 3rd fret, Ab, root position, top note G, barred
- 465546, 4th fret, Ab, root position, top note Bb, all fretted
- xx5546, 4th fret, G, 3rd inversion, top note Bb, all fretted
- xx6586, 5th fret, Ab, root position, top note Bb, all fretted
- 866886, 6th fret, C, 1st inversion, top note Bb, barred
- x-11-8-8-8-8, 8th fret, Ab, root position, top note C, barred
- x-11-10-12-11-x, 10th fret, Ab, root position, top note Bb, all fretted
- 11-11-10-12-11-x, 10th fret, Eb, 2nd inversion, top note Bb, barred
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.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Abmaj9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Abmaj9
Change one note of Abmaj9 and you have Abmaj7 (drop the ninth), Abmaj11 (add the eleventh), Abmaj13 (add the thirteenth), AbmMaj9 (the major third becomes the minor third), Abadd9 (drop the major seventh) or Ab69 (the major seventh becomes the sixth).
Abmaj9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major 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.