B9 guitar chord
The root left to the bass player. Frees a finger for a tension.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About B9 — rootless 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.
B9 notes and formula
| B | D# | F# | A | C# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 |
Dominant — the same pull as a 7, with more colour.
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
Leave the root to the bass player. In a band nobody misses it, and the ear supplies it from the guide tones anyway.
The finger it frees goes to a tension, which is why these sound richer than the shape they came from rather than thinner.
B9 has 13 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: D# in the bass, F# in the bass, A in the bass and C# in the bass. The one to learn first is the D# shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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 7676xx — no barre. None of the shapes for B9 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 6 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x21222 | 1st fret | B, root position | F# | barred |
| x44445 | 4th fret | C#, 9th in the bass | A | barred |
| 744645 | 4th fret | B, root position | A | barred |
| 7676xx | 6th fret | B, root position | C# | all fretted |
| 797679 | 6th fret | B, root position | C# | barred |
| 797879 | 7th fret | B, root position | C# | barred |
| x-x-9-8-10-9 | 8th fret | B, root position | C# | all fretted |
| 11-x-9-11-10-9 | 9th fret | D#, 1st inversion | C# | all fretted |
| x-14-13-14-14-14 | 13th fret | B, root position | F# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 13 drop 2 and 8 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of B9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (E#), the b13 (G) and the 13 (G#).
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.
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 a major seventh), Bm9 (the major third becomes a minor third), Badd9 (drop the flat seventh), B69 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth), B7 (drop the ninth) or B9b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth).
B9 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On B9’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.