Bmaj9 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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About Bmaj9 — drop 3 voicings
Bmaj9 is B, D#, F#, A# and C# — Bmaj7 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.
Bmaj9 notes and formula
| B | D# | F# | A# | C# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Tonic — an extended resting chord.
Also written BM9, BΔ9, Bma9 or B major 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bmaj9
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.
Bmaj9 has 8 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, 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 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 x2132x — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Bmaj9 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 6 of the 12 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x2132x | 1st fret | B, root position | C# | all fretted |
| 22132x | 1st fret | F#, 2nd inversion | C# | barred |
| x44446 | 4th fret | C#, 9th in the bass | A# | barred |
| xx4646 | 4th fret | F#, 2nd inversion | A# | all fretted |
| 744446 | 4th fret | B, root position | A# | barred |
| 768676 | 6th fret | B, root position | A# | barred |
| 798879 | 7th fret | B, root position | C# | all fretted |
| xx8879 | 7th fret | A#, 3rd inversion | C# | all fretted |
| x-x-9-8-11-9 | 8th fret | B, root position | C# | all fretted |
| 11-9-9-11-11-9 | 9th fret | D#, 1st inversion | C# | barred |
| x-14-11-11-11-11 | 11th fret | B, root position | D# | barred |
| x-14-13-15-14-x | 13th fret | B, root position | C# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 13 drop 2 and 13 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Bmaj9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (E#) and the 13 (G#).
How to use Bmaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Bmaj9 is C#m7 to F#7 — the ii and the V of B — and F#7 shares its third and seventh with C#m7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Bmaj9 belongs to Eb minor (the ♭VI), F# major (the IV, the subdominant), Ab minor (the ♭III) and B major (the I, the tonic).
What to play over Bmaj9
Every note of Bmaj9 is in B major and B lydian.
Chords near Bmaj9
Change one note of Bmaj9 and you have Bmaj7 (drop the ninth), Bmaj11 (add the fourth), Bmaj13 (add the sixth), BmMaj9 (the major third becomes a minor third), Badd9 (drop the major seventh) or B69 (the major seventh becomes a sixth).
Bmaj9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Bmaj9’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.