Caug9 guitar chord
The standard grips this chord is usually shown with.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Caug9 — 1st inversion
Caug9 is C, E, G#, Bb and D — C7 with the fifth raised and the natural ninth added on top.
It sounds bright, tense and slightly unreal. Raising the fifth leaves no semitone in the lower half of the chord, which is where the whole-tone flavour comes from.
Caug9 notes and formula
| C | E | G# | Bb | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 | ♭7 | 9 |
Altered dominant — dominant pull with a whole-tone colour.
Also written C9#5, C+9 or C9(#5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Caug9
Caug9 in 1st inversion puts E in the bass instead of C, the 3rd of the chord. The notes are the same; what changes is what the bass line does, which is most of why you would reach for it — it lets the lowest voice move by step where the root would have jumped.
One of Caug9’s 7 common shapes does this: 12-13-12-13-13-12.
Start with x30354 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 3 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x32334 | 2nd fret | C, root position | G# | barred |
| x30354 | open position | C, root position | G# | 1 open string |
| 656556 | 5th fret | Bb, 3rd inversion | Bb | barred |
| 87879x | 7th fret | C, root position | G# | all fretted |
| 8-x-8-9-9-10 | 8th fret | C, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-x-8-9-9-10 | 8th fret | Bb, 3rd inversion | D | all fretted |
| 12-13-12-13-13-12 | 12th fret | E, 1st inversion | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 6 shell, 14 rootless and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Caug9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (F#).
How to use Caug9
Caug9 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at F — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
Voice by voice, Caug9 → F. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In Caug9 | Moves | In F |
|---|---|---|
| C, the root | stays where it is | C, the fifth |
| E, the major third | rises a semitone | F, the root |
| G#, the sharp fifth | rises a semitone | A, the major third |
| Bb, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | A, the major third |
| D, the ninth | falls a whole tone | C, the fifth |
What to play over Caug9
Every note of Caug9 is in C whole tone.
Chords near Caug9
Change one note of Caug9 and you have Calt (the ninth becomes a flat ninth), Caug7 (drop the ninth), C9 (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth) or C9b5 (the sharp fifth becomes a flat fifth).
Caug9 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On Caug9’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.