F#m9 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 F#m9 — uncommon voicings
F#m9 is F#, A, C#, E and G# — F#m7 with the ninth stacked above it.
It sounds warm, and considerably richer than an m7. The standard voicing for a ii chord once the plain one has been played enough.
Pre-dominant or minor tonic — an m7’s job with more colour.
F#m9 notes and formula
| F# | A | C# | E | G# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 |
Also written F#min9, F#-9 or F# minor 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F#m9
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep A 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 F#m9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (B) or the 13 (D#).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 202120, open position, F#, root position, top note E, barred
- 242224, 2nd fret, F#, root position, top note G#, barred
- 576675, 5th fret, A, 1st inversion, top note A, all fretted
- x9799x, 7th fret, F#, root position, top note G#, barred
- x-11-11-11-10-12, 10th fret, G#, 9th in the bass, top note E, barred
- x-x-11-13-10-12, 10th fret, C#, 2nd inversion, top note E, all fretted
- 14-12-x-13-14-12, 12th fret, F#, root position, top note E, all fretted
- x-12-14-13-14-14, 12th fret, A, 1st inversion, top note F#, barred
How to use F#m9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on F#m9 is G#m7♭5 to C#7♭9: the ii and the V of F# minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of F#m9 belongs to C# minor (the iv, the subdominant), E major (the ii, the supertonic), F# minor (the i, the tonic) and A major (the vi, the submediant).
What to play over F#m9
Every note of F#m9 is in F# natural minor and F# dorian.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where F#m9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near F#m9
Change one note of F#m9 and you have F#m69 (the flat seventh becomes the sixth), F#m7 (drop the ninth), F#m11 (add the eleventh), F#mMaj9 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh), F#madd9 (drop the flat seventh) or F#9 (the minor third becomes the major third).
F#m9 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.