BbmMaj9 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 BbmMaj9 — drop 3 voicings
BbmMaj9 is Bb, Db, F, A and C — BbmMaj7 with the ninth added on top.
It sounds the same unease with more colour over it. The ninth softens the edge without resolving anything.
BbmMaj9 notes and formula
| Bb | Db | F | A | C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Minor tonic — melodic minor, extended.
Also written BbmM9, Bbm(maj9) or Bb-Δ9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play BbmMaj9
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.
BbmMaj9 has 5 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from the 2nd fret up to the 9th — every inversion the chord has: Bb in the bass, Db in the bass and C in the bass. The one to learn first is the C shape at the 2nd fret.
3 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.
Start with 6475xx — no barre and low, at the 4th fret. None of the shapes for BbmMaj9 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 3 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 143211 | 1st fret | F, 2nd inversion | F | barred |
| 64x565 | 4th fret | Bb, root position | A | all fretted |
| 6475xx | 4th fret | Bb, root position | C | all fretted |
| 687668 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | C | barred |
| 8-8-8-10-10-9 | 8th fret | C, 9th in the bass | Db | barred |
| x-13-11-14-13-x | 11th fret | Bb, root position | C | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 7 drop 2 and 14 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of BbmMaj9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (Eb) and the 13 (G).
How to use BbmMaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on BbmMaj9 is Cm7♭5 to F7♭9: the ii and the V of Bb minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
What to play over BbmMaj9
Every note of BbmMaj9 is in Bb harmonic minor and Bb melodic minor.
Chords near BbmMaj9
Change one note of BbmMaj9 and you have Bbmaj9 (the minor third becomes a major third), Bbm69 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), Bbm9 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh), BbmMaj7 (drop the ninth), BbmMaj11 (add the fourth) or Bbmadd9 (drop the major seventh).
BbmMaj9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On BbmMaj9’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.