B9 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About B9 — drop 3 voicings
B9 is B, D#, F#, A and C# — B7 with the ninth stacked on top.
It sounds bright and full, still clearly pulling. The ninth adds height without softening the tritone underneath it, which is why funk and soul comp on this rather than on a plain 7.
Dominant — the same pull as a 7, with more colour.
B9 notes and formula
| B | D# | F# | A | C# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 |
Also written Bdom9 or B dominant 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play B9
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.
B9 has 8 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: B in the bass, D# in the bass, A in the bass and C# in the bass. The one to learn first is the A shape at the nut.
4 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, 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.
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep D# and A (they fix the quality) and C# (what the symbol is about). Let F# and B go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play B9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (E#), the b13 (G) or the 13 (G#).
All 9 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x21222, 1st fret, B, root position, top note F#, barred
- x44445, 4th fret, C#, 9th in the bass, top note A, barred
- 744645, 4th fret, B, root position, top note A, barred
- 7676xx, 6th fret, B, root position, top note C#, all fretted
- 797679, 6th fret, B, root position, top note C#, barred
- 797879, 7th fret, B, root position, top note C#, barred
- x-x-9-8-10-9, 8th fret, B, root position, top note C#, all fretted
- 11-x-9-11-10-9, 9th fret, D#, 1st inversion, top note C#, all fretted
- x-14-13-14-14-14, 13th fret, B, root position, top note F#, barred
How to use B9
B9 is the V of E, and that is where it goes if it goes anywhere: the third and the flat seventh are a tritone apart, and both resolve by a semitone into E.
In a phrase:F#m7→B9→Emaj7— the ii–V–I of E.
Voice by voice, B9 → E. 2 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In B9 | Moves | In E |
|---|---|---|
| B, the root | stays where it is | B, the fifth |
| D#, the major third | rises a semitone | E, the root |
| F#, the fifth | falls a whole tone | E, the root |
| A, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | G#, the major third |
| C#, the ninth | falls a whole tone | B, the fifth |
In which keys. Every note of B9 belongs to C# minor (the ♭VII) and E major (the V, the dominant).
What to play over B9
Every note of B9 is in B mixolydian and B lydian dominant.
Chords near B9
Change one note of B9 and you have Bmaj9 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh), Bm9 (the major third becomes the minor third), Badd9 (drop the flat seventh), B69 (the flat seventh becomes the sixth), B7 (drop the ninth) or B9b5 (the fifth becomes the flat fifth).
B9 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh 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.