Bb9 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 Bb9 — rootless voicings
Bb9 is Bb, D, F, Ab and C — Bb7 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.
Bb9 notes and formula
| Bb | D | F | Ab | C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 |
Dominant — the same pull as a 7, with more colour.
Also written Bbdom9 or Bb dominant 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bb9
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.
Bb9 has 15 of them, on the middle four strings, the top 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, Ab in the bass and C in the bass. The one to learn first is the C shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the middle 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 6565xx — no barre and low, at the 5th fret. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. 6 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x10111 | open position | Bb, root position | F | barred |
| x33334 | 3rd fret | C, 9th in the bass | Ab | barred |
| 633534 | 3rd fret | Bb, root position | Ab | barred |
| 6565xx | 5th fret | Bb, root position | C | all fretted |
| 686568 | 5th fret | Bb, root position | C | barred |
| 686768 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | C | barred |
| xx8798 | 7th fret | Bb, root position | C | all fretted |
| 10-x-8-10-9-8 | 8th fret | D, 1st inversion | C | all fretted |
| x-13-12-13-13-13 | 12th fret | Bb, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell, 13 drop 2, 8 drop 3 and 4 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Bb9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (E), the b13 (Gb) and the 13 (G).
How to use Bb9
Bb9 is the V of Eb, 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 Eb.
Voice by voice, Bb9 → Eb. 2 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In Bb9 | Moves | In Eb |
|---|---|---|
| Bb, the root | stays where it is | Bb, the fifth |
| D, the major third | rises a semitone | Eb, the root |
| F, the fifth | falls a whole tone | Eb, the root |
| Ab, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | G, the major third |
| C, the ninth | falls a whole tone | Bb, the fifth |
In which keys. Every note of Bb9 belongs to C minor (the ♭VII) and Eb major (the V, the dominant).
What to play over Bb9
Every note of Bb9 is in Bb mixolydian and Bb lydian dominant.
Chords near Bb9
Change one note of Bb9 and you have Bbmaj9 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), Bbm9 (the major third becomes a minor third), Bbadd9 (drop the flat seventh), Bb69 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth), Bb7 (drop the ninth) or Bb9b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth).
Bb9 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On Bb9’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.