Dadd9 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 Dadd9 — drop 2 voicings
Dadd9 is D, F#, A and E — D 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.
Dadd9 notes and formula
| D | F# | A | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
Tonic — a triad with one colour on it.
Also written D(add9), Dadd2 or D add nine. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Dadd9
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.
Dadd9 has 13 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and the bottom four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: D in the bass, F# in the bass, A in the bass and E in the bass. The one to learn first is the E shape at the 2nd fret, 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 x-x-0-9-7-10 — no barre and 1 open string. None of the shapes for Dadd9 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 3 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x54252 | 2nd fret | D, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x54x55 | 4th fret | D, root position | A | barred |
| x57770 | 5th fret | D, root position | F# | barred |
| x-x-0-9-7-10 | 7th fret | D, root position | D | 1 open string |
| 10-9-x-9-10-10 | 9th fret | D, root position | D | barred |
| x-x-12-11-x-12 | 11th fret | D, root position | E | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 9 drop 3 and 4 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Dadd9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Dadd9 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 Dadd9 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 Dadd9
Every note of Dadd9 is in D major pentatonic, D major, D lydian, D mixolydian and D lydian dominant.
Chords near Dadd9
Change one note of Dadd9 and you have D (drop the ninth), Dsus2 (drop the major third), Dsus2sus4 (the major third becomes a fourth), Dmaj7 (the ninth becomes a major seventh), Dmaj9 (add the major seventh) or Dmadd9 (the major third becomes a minor third).
Dadd9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Dadd9’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.