G7b9 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 G7b9 — drop 2 voicings
G7b9 is G, B, D, F and Ab — G9 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.
G7b9 notes and formula
| G | B | D | F | Ab |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | ♭9 |
Altered dominant — it points at a minor chord.
Also written G7(b9), G7-9 or G7♭9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play G7b9
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.
G7b9 has 14 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: G in the bass, B in the bass, F in the bass and Ab in the bass. The one to learn first is the G shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the bottom 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 3231xx — no barre and down at the nut. 1 of the 6 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 10th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 320131 | open position | G, root position | F | 1 open string |
| 3231xx | 1st fret | G, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| xx3434 | 3rd fret | F, 3rd inversion | Ab | all fretted |
| 353434 | 3rd fret | G, root position | Ab | barred |
| xx5464 | 4th fret | G, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| x-10-9-10-9-10 | 9th fret | G, root position | D | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 9 drop 3, 15 rootless and 3 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of G7b9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (C#), the b13 (Eb) and the 13 (E).
How to use G7b9
G7b9 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at C — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
Voice by voice, G7b9 → Cm. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In G7b9 | Moves | In Cm |
|---|---|---|
| G, the root | stays where it is | G, the fifth |
| B, the major third | rises a semitone | C, the root |
| D, the fifth | rises a semitone | Eb, the minor third |
| F, the flat seventh | falls a whole tone | Eb, the minor third |
| Ab, the flat ninth | falls a semitone | G, the fifth |
What to play over G7b9
Every note of G7b9 is in G half-whole diminished.
Chords near G7b9
Change one note of G7b9 and you have G7 (drop the flat ninth), Galt (the fifth becomes a sharp fifth), G9 (the flat ninth becomes a ninth), G7#9 (the flat ninth becomes a minor third) or G/F (drop the flat ninth).
G7b9 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On G7b9’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.