Fmaj9 is F, A, C, E and G. It keeps every note of and adds the .
Fmaj9 can fill the same major-tonic role as , with both the major 7th and 9th.
Fmaj9 and both contain the 9th; only Fmaj9 contains .
Hear the 9th by comparing with Fmaj9.
One repeated root rises two frets to the 9th. Every other note stays the same.
Also written FM9, FΔ9, Fma9 or F major 9.
At the end of a jazz ii–V–I, Fmaj9 is the usual landing rather than a bare major seventh. The top voice that was the ii’s ninth and the V’s thirteenth steps down onto the ninth.
Listen for: The top voice holds through the ii and V, then falls a whole step to the ninth. On the maj7 it stays where it is, as the third.
A minor-key tune can cadence on Fmaj9 instead of the i, a softer landing a step below G. The ♭VII’s root doesn’t move: it becomes the ninth.
Listen for: The root of the ♭VII holds as the ninth while the other voices step. On the maj7 it has to fall a whole step to the root.
Heard in“Eight Miles High”“You Showed Me”
In which keys. Every note of Fmaj9 belongs to C major, D minor, F major and A minor.
Contains Fmaj9 and adds eleventh and thirteenth.
Contains Fmaj9 and adds sharp eleventh and thirteenth.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.
Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.