E9b5 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.
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About E9b5 — shell voicings
E9b5 is E, G#, Bb, D and F# — E7b5 with the natural ninth added over it.
It sounds sleek and tense. Played as a tritone substitution the ♭5 is the root of the dominant it replaced.
E9b5 notes and formula
| E | G# | Bb | D | F# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♭5 | ♭7 | 9 |
Altered dominant — commonly the tritone substitute.
Also written E9(b5), E9-5 or E9♭5. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play E9b5
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.
E9b5 has 10 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings, the bottom four strings, strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 13th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the E shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
3 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 012132 — no barre and 1 open string. 2 of the 7 shapes here sit in open position. 2 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 012132 | open position | E, root position | F# | 1 open string |
| x12132 | 1st fret | Bb, 2nd inversion | F# | all fretted |
| 054334 | open position | E, root position | G# | 1 open string |
| x76776 | 6th fret | E, root position | Bb | barred |
| 098790 | 7th fret | E, root position | G# | 2 open strings |
| 12-11-12-11-11-12 | 11th fret | E, root position | E | barred |
| 12-13-12-13-x-14 | 12th fret | E, root position | F# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 13 rootless and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of E9b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b13 (C) and the 13 (C#).
How to use E9b5
E9b5 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at A — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
Voice by voice, E9b5 → A. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In E9b5 | Moves | In A |
|---|---|---|
| E, the root | stays where it is | E, the fifth |
| G#, the major third | rises a semitone | A, the root |
| Bb, the flat fifth | falls a semitone | A, the root |
| D, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | C#, the major third |
| F#, the ninth | falls a whole tone | E, the fifth |
What to play over E9b5
Every note of E9b5 is in E whole tone and E lydian dominant.
Chords near E9b5
Change one note of E9b5 and you have E7b5 (drop the ninth), E9 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), Eaug9 (the flat fifth becomes a sharp fifth) or E9#11 (add the fifth).
E9b5 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On E9b5’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.