About Ebmadd9 — drop 2 voicings
Ebmadd9 is Eb, Gb, Bb and F — Ebm with the ninth added, and no seventh.
It sounds sharp-edged. The ninth grinding a whole step under the minor third is the edge an m9 softens.
Ebmadd9 notes and formula
| Eb | Gb | Bb | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 9 |
Minor tonic — a triad with one colour on it.
Also written Ebm(add9), Ebmin(add9) or Eb-add9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ebmadd9
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.
Ebmadd9 has 11 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and the bottom four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: Eb in the bass, Gb in the bass, Bb in the bass and F in the bass. The one to learn first is the F shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
4 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 xx4341 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Ebmadd9 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 2 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx4341 | 1st fret | Gb, 1st inversion | F | all fretted |
| x6436x | 3rd fret | Eb, root position | F | all fretted |
| x64x66 | 4th fret | Eb, root position | Bb | barred |
| x9886x | 6th fret | Gb, 1st inversion | F | all fretted |
| 11-9-x-10-11-x | 9th fret | Eb, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| 11-13-13-11-11-13 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | F | barred |
| x-x-13-11-11-13 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | F | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 7 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Ebmadd9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Ebmadd9 is Fm7♭5 to Bb7♭9: the ii and the V of Eb minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Ebmadd9 belongs to C# major (the ii, the supertonic), Eb minor (the i, the tonic), F# major (the vi, the submediant) and Bb minor (the iv, the subdominant).
What to play over Ebmadd9
Every note of Ebmadd9 is in Eb dorian, Eb natural minor, Eb harmonic minor and Eb melodic minor.
Chords near Ebmadd9
Change one note of Ebmadd9 and you have Ebm (drop the ninth), Ebsus2 (drop the minor third), Ebsus2sus4 (the minor third becomes a fourth), Ebm6 (the ninth becomes a sixth), Ebm69 (add the sixth) or Ebm7 (the ninth becomes a flat seventh).
Ebmadd9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Ebmadd9’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.