D69 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About D69 — shell voicings
D69 is D, F#, A, B and E — D6 with the ninth added as well.
It sounds wide and entirely at rest. The modern way to voice a tonic when a triad is too bare and a maj7 too pointed.
D69 notes and formula
| D | F# | A | B | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
Tonic — it commits to nothing.
Also written D6/9, D6add9 or D six nine. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play D69
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
D69 has 3 of them, on the middle four strings, the bottom four strings and the top four strings, from the 4th fret up to the 11th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the D shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with x54200 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. 7 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x22232 | 2nd fret | B, 6th in the bass | F# | barred |
| x54200 | open position | D, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| x52432 | 2nd fret | D, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x54455 | 4th fret | D, root position | A | barred |
| x77777 | 7th fret | E, 9th in the bass | B | barred |
| 10-9-9-9-10-10 | 9th fret | D, root position | D | barred |
| x-x-12-11-12-12 | 11th fret | D, root position | E | barred |
| x-12-12-11-12-12 | 11th fret | A, 2nd inversion | E | barred |
| x-14-14-14-15-14 | 14th fret | B, 6th in the bass | F# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 12 drop 2, 8 drop 3, 13 rootless and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of D69, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (G#).
How to use D69
How you get to it. The turn that lands on D69 is Em7 to A7 — the ii and the V of D — and A7 shares its third and seventh with Em7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of D69 belongs to D major (the I), E minor (the ♭VII), F# minor (the ♭VI), G major (the V), A major (the IV) and B minor (the ♭III).
What to play over D69
D69 is every note of the D major pentatonic, and nothing else. It also sits inside D major, D lydian, D mixolydian and D lydian dominant.
Chords near D69
Change one note of D69 and you have Dmaj9 (the sixth becomes a major seventh), Dmaj13 (add the major seventh), Dm69 (the major third becomes a minor third), Dadd9 (drop the sixth), D6 (drop the ninth) or D9 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh).
D69 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On D69’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Piano Book (Sher Music, 1989). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.