Bmaj9 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 Bmaj9 — uncommon 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.
Tonic — an extended resting chord.
Bmaj9 notes and formula
| B | D# | F# | A# | C# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
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
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 Bmaj9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (E#) or the 13 (G#).
All 12 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x2132x, 1st fret, B, root position, top note C#, all fretted
- 22132x, 1st fret, F#, 2nd inversion, top note C#, barred
- x44446, 4th fret, C#, 9th in the bass, top note A#, barred
- xx4646, 4th fret, F#, 2nd inversion, top note A#, all fretted
- 744446, 4th fret, B, root position, top note A#, barred
- 768676, 6th fret, B, root position, top note A#, barred
- 798879, 7th fret, B, root position, top note C#, all fretted
- xx8879, 7th fret, A#, 3rd inversion, top note C#, all fretted
- x-x-9-8-11-9, 8th fret, B, root position, top note C#, all fretted
- 11-9-9-11-11-9, 9th fret, D#, 1st inversion, top note C#, barred
- x-14-11-11-11-11, 11th fret, B, root position, top note D#, barred
- x-14-13-15-14-x, 13th fret, B, root position, top note C#, all fretted
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.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Bmaj9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Bmaj9
Change one note of Bmaj9 and you have Bmaj7 (drop the ninth), Bmaj11 (add the eleventh), Bmaj13 (add the thirteenth), BmMaj9 (the major third becomes the minor third), Badd9 (drop the major seventh) or B69 (the major seventh becomes the sixth).
Bmaj9 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.