Dadd9 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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About Dadd9 — drop 3 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
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.
Dadd9 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, 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 D shape at the 2nd fret.
5 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 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 13 drop 2 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.