Cadd9 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Cadd9 — drop 2 voicings
Cadd9 is C, E, G and D — C with the ninth added, and no seventh.
It sounds bright and ringing. No seventh at all: that is what “add” means, and it is why this sounds open where a maj9 sounds lush.
Cadd9 notes and formula
| C | E | G | D |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
Tonic — a triad with one colour on it.
Also written C(add9), Cadd2 or C add nine. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Cadd9
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
Cadd9 has 15 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and the bottom four strings, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: C in the bass, E in the bass, G in the bass and D 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 x30030 — no barre and 3 open strings. 2 of the 8 shapes here sit in open position. 3 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x32030 | open position | C, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| x30030 | open position | C, root position | E | 3 open strings |
| x32x33 | 2nd fret | C, root position | G | barred |
| 870080 | 7th fret | C, root position | G | 3 open strings |
| 87x788 | 7th fret | C, root position | C | barred |
| x-x-10-9-x-10 | 9th fret | C, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-15-14-12-15-12 | 12th fret | C, root position | E | all fretted |
| x-15-14-x-15-15 | 14th fret | C, root position | G | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 10 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Cadd9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Cadd9 is Dm7 to G7 — the ii and the V of C — and G7 shares its third and seventh with Dm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Cadd9 belongs to C major (the I), D minor (the ♭VII), E minor (the ♭VI), F major (the V), G major (the IV) and A minor (the ♭III).
What to play over Cadd9
Every note of Cadd9 is in C major pentatonic, C major, C lydian, C mixolydian and C lydian dominant.
Chords near Cadd9
Change one note of Cadd9 and you have C (drop the ninth), Csus2 (drop the major third), Csus2sus4 (the major third becomes a fourth), Cmaj7 (the ninth becomes a major seventh), Cmaj9 (add the major seventh) or Cmadd9 (the major third becomes a minor third).
Cadd9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Cadd9’s sound and use this page follows Robert Rawlins & Nor Eddine Bahha, Jazzology (Hal Leonard, 2005). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.