Cmadd9 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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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About Cmadd9 — drop 3 voicings
Cmadd9 is C, Eb, G and D — Cm with the ninth added, and no seventh.
It sounds sharp-edged. The ninth grinding a whole step under the minor third is the edge an m9 softens.
Cmadd9 notes and formula
| C | Eb | G | D |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 9 |
Minor tonic — a triad with one colour on it.
Also written Cm(add9), Cmin(add9) or C-add9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Cmadd9
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.
Cmadd9 has 8 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: C in the bass, Eb in the bass, G in the bass and D in the bass. The one to learn first is the G shape at the nut.
4 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 x30543 — no barre and 1 open string. 2 of the 8 shapes here sit in open position. 3 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x31033 | open position | C, root position | G | barred |
| x30543 | open position | C, root position | G | 1 open string |
| x6553x | 3rd fret | Eb, 1st inversion | D | all fretted |
| 860788 | 6th fret | C, root position | C | barred |
| 8-10-10-8-8-10 | 8th fret | C, root position | D | barred |
| x-x-10-8-8-10 | 8th fret | C, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-x-13-12-13-10 | 10th fret | Eb, 1st inversion | D | all fretted |
| x-15-13-12-15-x | 12th fret | C, root position | D | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 13 drop 2 and 3 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Cmadd9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Cmadd9 is Dm7♭5 to G7♭9: the ii and the V of C minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Cmadd9 belongs to C minor (the i, the tonic), Eb major (the vi, the submediant), G minor (the iv, the subdominant) and Bb major (the ii, the supertonic).
What to play over Cmadd9
Every note of Cmadd9 is in C dorian, C natural minor, C harmonic minor and C melodic minor.
Chords near Cmadd9
Change one note of Cmadd9 and you have Cm (drop the ninth), Csus2 (drop the minor third), Csus2sus4 (the minor third becomes a fourth), Cm6 (the ninth becomes a sixth), Cm69 (add the sixth) or Cm7 (the ninth becomes a flat seventh).
Cmadd9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Cmadd9’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.