D7b9 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About D7b9 — uncommon voicings
D7b9 is D, F#, A, C and Eb — D9 with the ninth lowered a semitone.
It sounds dark and urgent. The flat ninth comes from the harmonic minor, so this is the V of a minor key rather than a major one.
Altered dominant — it points at a minor chord.
D7b9 notes and formula
| D | F# | A | C | Eb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | ♭9 |
Also written D7(b9), D7-9 or D7♭9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play D7b9
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep F# and C (they fix the quality) and Eb (what the symbol is about). Let A and D go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play D7b9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (G#), the b13 (Bb) or the 13 (B).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- xx0542, open position, D, root position, top note F#, 1 open string
- x54545, 4th fret, D, root position, top note A, barred
- x60575, 5th fret, Eb, 9th in the bass, top note A, 1 open string
- 10-9-10-8-x-x, 8th fret, D, root position, top note Eb, all fretted
- x-x-10-11-10-11, 10th fret, C, 3rd inversion, top note Eb, all fretted
- 10-12-10-11-10-11, 10th fret, D, root position, top note Eb, barred
- x-x-12-11-13-11, 11th fret, D, root position, top note Eb, all fretted
How to use D7b9
D7b9 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at G — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
In a phrase:Am7b5→D7b9→Gm7— the minor ii–V–i of G.
Voice by voice, D7b9 → Gm. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In D7b9 | Moves | In Gm |
|---|---|---|
| D, the root | stays where it is | D, the fifth |
| F#, the major third | rises a semitone | G, the root |
| A, the fifth | rises a semitone | Bb, the minor third |
| C, the flat seventh | falls a whole tone | Bb, the minor third |
| Eb, the flat ninth | falls a semitone | D, the fifth |
What to play over D7b9
Every note of D7b9 is in D half-whole diminished.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where D7b9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near D7b9
Change one note of D7b9 and you have D7 (drop the flat ninth), Dalt (the fifth becomes the sharp fifth), D9 (the flat ninth becomes the ninth), D7#9 (the flat ninth becomes the sharp ninth) or D/C (drop the flat ninth).
D7b9 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.