F69 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.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About F69 — shell voicings
F69 is F, A, C, D and G — F6 with the ninth added as well.
It sounds wide and entirely at rest. The modern way to voice a tonic when a triad is too bare and a maj7 too pointed.
F69 notes and formula
| F | A | C | D | G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
Tonic — it commits to nothing.
Also written F6/9, F6add9 or F six nine. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F69
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.
F69 has 5 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 14th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the F shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with x85765 — no barre and low, at the 5th fret. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. 8 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100011 | open position | F, root position | F | barred |
| xx3233 | 2nd fret | F, root position | G | barred |
| x33233 | 2nd fret | C, 2nd inversion | G | barred |
| x55565 | 5th fret | D, 6th in the bass | A | barred |
| x85765 | 5th fret | F, root position | A | all fretted |
| x87788 | 7th fret | F, root position | C | barred |
| x-10-10-10-10-10 | 10th fret | G, 9th in the bass | D | barred |
| 13-12-12-12-13-13 | 12th fret | F, root position | F | barred |
| x-x-15-14-15-15 | 14th fret | F, root position | G | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 15 drop 2, 10 drop 3, 15 rootless and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of F69, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (B).
How to use F69
How you get to it. The turn that lands on F69 is Gm7 to C7 — the ii and the V of F — and C7 shares its third and seventh with Gm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of F69 belongs to C major (the IV), D minor (the ♭III), F major (the I), G minor (the ♭VII), A minor (the ♭VI) and Bb major (the V).
What to play over F69
F69 is every note of the F major pentatonic, and nothing else. It also sits inside F major, F lydian, F mixolydian and F lydian dominant.
Chords near F69
Change one note of F69 and you have Fmaj9 (the sixth becomes a major seventh), Fmaj13 (add the major seventh), Fm69 (the major third becomes a minor third), Fadd9 (drop the sixth), F6 (drop the ninth) or F9 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh).
F69 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On F69’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Piano Book (Sher Music, 1989). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.