AbmMaj9 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About AbmMaj9 — drop 2 voicings
AbmMaj9 is Ab, Cb, Eb, G and Bb — AbmMaj7 with the ninth added on top.
It sounds the same unease with more colour over it. The ninth softens the edge without resolving anything.
AbmMaj9 notes and formula
| Ab | Cb | Eb | G | Bb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Minor tonic — melodic minor, extended.
Also written AbmM9, Abm(maj9) or Ab-Δ9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play AbmMaj9
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.
AbmMaj9 has 7 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and the bottom four strings, from open position up to the 9th — every inversion the chord has: Ab in the bass, Cb in the bass, G in the bass and Bb in the bass. The one to learn first is the G shape at the 3rd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
3 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 4253xx — no barre and down at the nut. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 3 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42x343 | 2nd fret | Ab, root position | G | all fretted |
| 4x5304 | open position | Ab, root position | Ab | 1 open string |
| 4253xx | 2nd fret | Ab, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| 465446 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | barred |
| 666887 | 6th fret | Bb, 9th in the bass | Cb | barred |
| x-11-9-12-11-x | 9th fret | Ab, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| 11-14-13-12-11-11 | 11th fret | Eb, 2nd inversion | Eb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 6 drop 3, 14 rootless and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of AbmMaj9, 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 AbmMaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on AbmMaj9 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.
What to play over AbmMaj9
Every note of AbmMaj9 is in Ab harmonic minor and Ab melodic minor.
Chords near AbmMaj9
Change one note of AbmMaj9 and you have Abmaj9 (the minor third becomes a major third), Abm69 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), Abm9 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh), AbmMaj7 (drop the ninth), AbmMaj11 (add the fourth) or Abmadd9 (drop the major seventh).
AbmMaj9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On AbmMaj9’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.