F7b9 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About F7b9 — drop 2 voicings
F7b9 is F, A, C, Eb and Gb — F9 with the ninth lowered a semitone.
It sounds dark and urgent. The flat ninth comes from the harmonic minor, so this is the V of a minor key rather than a major one.
Altered dominant — it points at a minor chord.
F7b9 notes and formula
| F | A | C | Eb | Gb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | ♭9 |
Also written F7(b9), F7-9 or F7♭9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F7b9
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.
F7b9 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: F in the bass, A in the bass, Eb in the bass and Gb 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.
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep A and Eb (they fix the quality) and Gb (what the symbol is about). Let C and F go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play F7b9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (B), the b13 (Db) or the 13 (D).
All 6 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- xx1212, 1st fret, Eb, 3rd inversion, top note Gb, all fretted
- 131212, 1st fret, F, root position, top note Gb, barred
- xx3242, 2nd fret, F, root position, top note Gb, all fretted
- x87878, 7th fret, F, root position, top note C, barred
- 13-12-13-11-x-x, 11th fret, F, root position, top note Gb, all fretted
- 13-x-13-14-13-14, 13th fret, F, root position, top note Gb, barred
How to use F7b9
F7b9 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at Bb — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
In a phrase:Cm7b5→F7b9→Bbm7— the minor ii–V–i of Bb.
Voice by voice, F7b9 → Bbm. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In F7b9 | Moves | In Bbm |
|---|---|---|
| F, the root | stays where it is | F, the fifth |
| A, the major third | rises a semitone | Bb, the root |
| C, the fifth | rises a semitone | Db, the minor third |
| Eb, the flat seventh | falls a whole tone | Db, the minor third |
| Gb, the flat ninth | falls a semitone | F, the fifth |
What to play over F7b9
Every note of F7b9 is in F half-whole diminished.
Chords near F7b9
Change one note of F7b9 and you have F7 (drop the flat ninth), Falt (the fifth becomes the sharp fifth), F9 (the flat ninth becomes the ninth), F7#9 (the flat ninth becomes the sharp ninth) or F/D# (drop the flat ninth).
F7b9 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant 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.