FmMaj9 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About FmMaj9 — uncommon voicings
FmMaj9 is F, Ab, C, E and G — FmMaj7 with the ninth added on top.
It sounds the same unease with more colour over it. The ninth softens the edge without resolving anything.
Minor tonic — melodic minor, extended.
FmMaj9 notes and formula
| F | Ab | C | E | G |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Also written FmM9, Fm(maj9) or F-Δ9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play FmMaj9
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep Ab and E (they fix the quality) and G (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 FmMaj9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (Bb) or the 13 (D).
All 9 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 132113, 1st fret, F, root position, top note G, barred
- xx3054, open position, F, root position, top note Ab, 1 open string
- 333554, 3rd fret, G, 9th in the bass, top note Ab, barred
- x8698x, 6th fret, F, root position, top note G, all fretted
- 8-11-10-9-8-8, 8th fret, C, 2nd inversion, top note C, barred
- 13-11-x-12-13-0, 11th fret, F, root position, top note C, 1 open string
- 13-11-x-12-13-12, 11th fret, F, root position, top note E, all fretted
- 13-11-14-12-x-x, 11th fret, F, root position, top note G, all fretted
- 13-15-14-13-13-15, 13th fret, F, root position, top note G, barred
How to use FmMaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on FmMaj9 is Gm7♭5 to C7♭9: the ii and the V of F minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
What to play over FmMaj9
Every note of FmMaj9 is in F harmonic minor and F melodic minor.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where FmMaj9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near FmMaj9
Change one note of FmMaj9 and you have Fmaj9 (the minor third becomes the major third), Fm69 (the major seventh becomes the sixth), Fm9 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh), FmMaj7 (drop the ninth), FmMaj11 (add the eleventh) or Fmadd9 (drop the major seventh).
FmMaj9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor 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.