Fadd9 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 Fadd9 — drop 2 voicings
Fadd9 is F, A, C and G — F 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.
Fadd9 notes and formula
| F | A | C | G |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
Tonic — a triad with one colour on it.
Also written F(add9), Fadd2 or F add nine. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Fadd9
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.
Fadd9 has 15 of them, on the middle four strings, the top four strings and the bottom four strings, from open position up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: F in the bass, A in the bass, C in the bass and G in the bass. The one to learn first is the A shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the middle 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 xx32x3 — no barre and only 3 fretted notes. 1 of the 6 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx32x3 | 2nd fret | F, root position | G | all fretted |
| xx3065 | open position | F, root position | A | 1 open string |
| x87585 | 5th fret | F, root position | A | all fretted |
| x87088 | 7th fret | F, root position | C | barred |
| 13-12-x-12-13-13 | 12th fret | F, root position | F | barred |
| x-x-15-14-13-15 | 13th fret | F, root position | G | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 10 drop 3 and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Fadd9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Fadd9 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 Fadd9 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 Fadd9
Every note of Fadd9 is in F major pentatonic, F major, F lydian, F mixolydian and F lydian dominant.
Chords near Fadd9
Change one note of Fadd9 and you have F (drop the ninth), Fsus2 (drop the major third), Fsus2sus4 (the major third becomes a fourth), Fmaj7 (the ninth becomes a major seventh), Fmaj9 (add the major seventh) or Fmadd9 (the major third becomes a minor third).
Fadd9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Fadd9’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.