Dmaj9 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 Dmaj9 — uncommon voicings
Dmaj9 is D, F#, A, C# and E — Dmaj7 with the ninth stacked above it.
It sounds a maj7 with more air in it. The ninth argues with nothing here, so it works anywhere a maj7 does.
Tonic — an extended resting chord.
Dmaj9 notes and formula
| D | F# | A | C# | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Also written DM9, DΔ9, Dma9 or D major 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Dmaj9
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep F# and C# (they fix the quality) and E (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 Dmaj9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (G#) or the 13 (B).
All 12 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x52222, 2nd fret, D, root position, top note F#, barred
- x5465x, 4th fret, D, root position, top note E, all fretted
- 55465x, 4th fret, A, 2nd inversion, top note E, barred
- x90979, 7th fret, F#, 1st inversion, top note C#, barred
- x77779, 7th fret, E, 9th in the bass, top note C#, barred
- xx7979, 7th fret, A, 2nd inversion, top note C#, all fretted
- 10-7-7-7-7-9, 7th fret, D, root position, top note C#, barred
- 10-9-11-9-10-9, 9th fret, D, root position, top note C#, barred
- 10-12-11-11-10-12, 10th fret, D, root position, top note E, all fretted
- x-x-11-11-10-12, 10th fret, C#, 3rd inversion, top note E, all fretted
- x-x-12-11-14-12, 11th fret, D, root position, top note E, all fretted
- 14-12-12-14-14-12, 12th fret, F#, 1st inversion, top note E, barred
How to use Dmaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Dmaj9 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 Dmaj9 belongs to D major (the I, the tonic), F# minor (the ♭VI), A major (the IV, the subdominant) and B minor (the ♭III).
What to play over Dmaj9
Every note of Dmaj9 is in D major and D lydian.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Dmaj9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Dmaj9
Change one note of Dmaj9 and you have Dmaj7 (drop the ninth), Dmaj11 (add the eleventh), Dmaj13 (add the thirteenth), DmMaj9 (the major third becomes the minor third), Dadd9 (drop the major seventh) or D69 (the major seventh becomes the sixth).
Dmaj9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major 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.