About Eadd9 — drop 3 voicings
Eadd9 is E, G#, B and F# — E 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.
Eadd9 notes and formula
| E | G# | B | F# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
Tonic — a triad with one colour on it.
Also written E(add9), Eadd2 or E add nine. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Eadd9
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.
Eadd9 has 9 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: E in the bass, G# in the bass, B in the bass and F# in the bass. The one to learn first is the F# shape at the nut.
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 xx21x2 — no barre and only 3 fretted notes. 1 of the 6 shapes here sits in open position. 3 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 022102 | open position | E, root position | F# | barred |
| xx21x2 | 1st fret | E, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x76474 | 4th fret | E, root position | G# | all fretted |
| x76x77 | 6th fret | E, root position | B | barred |
| 12-11-x-11-12-12 | 11th fret | E, root position | E | barred |
| x-x-14-13-12-14 | 12th fret | E, root position | F# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 14 drop 2 voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Eadd9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Eadd9 is F#m7 to B7 — the ii and the V of E — and B7 shares its third and seventh with F#m7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Eadd9 belongs to C# minor (the ♭III), E major (the I), F# minor (the ♭VII), Ab minor (the ♭VI), A major (the V) and B major (the IV).
What to play over Eadd9
Every note of Eadd9 is in E major pentatonic, E major, E lydian, E mixolydian and E lydian dominant.
Chords near Eadd9
Change one note of Eadd9 and you have E (drop the ninth), Esus2 (drop the major third), Esus2sus4 (the major third becomes a fourth), Emaj7 (the ninth becomes a major seventh), Emaj9 (add the major seventh) or E6 (the ninth becomes a sixth).
Eadd9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Eadd9’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.