G9b5 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 G9b5 — uncommon voicings
G9b5 is G, B, Db, F and A — G7b5 with the natural ninth added over it.
It sounds sleek and tense. Played as a tritone substitution the ♭5 is the root of the dominant it replaced.
Altered dominant — commonly the tritone substitute.
G9b5 notes and formula
| G | B | Db | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♭5 | ♭7 | 9 |
Also written G9(b5), G9-5 or G9♭5. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play G9b5
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep B and F (they fix the quality) and Db and A (what the symbol is about). Let G go — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play G9b5 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the b13 (Eb) or the 13 (E).
All 6 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 323223, 2nd fret, G, root position, top note G, barred
- 343405, open position, G, root position, top note A, 1 open string
- x45465, 4th fret, Db, 2nd inversion, top note A, all fretted
- x-10-9-10-10-9, 9th fret, G, root position, top note Db, barred
- x-12-11-0-0-13, 11th fret, A, 9th in the bass, top note F, 2 open strings
- 15-14-15-14-14-15, 14th fret, G, root position, top note G, barred
How to use G9b5
G9b5 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.
In a phrase:Dm7→G9b5→Cmaj7— the ii–V–I of C.
Voice by voice, G9b5 → C. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In G9b5 | Moves | In C |
|---|---|---|
| G, the root | stays where it is | G, the fifth |
| B, the major third | rises a semitone | C, the root |
| Db, the flat fifth | falls a semitone | C, the root |
| F, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | E, the major third |
| A, the ninth | falls a whole tone | G, the fifth |
What to play over G9b5
Every note of G9b5 is in G whole tone and G lydian dominant.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where G9b5 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near G9b5
Change one note of G9b5 and you have G7b5 (drop the ninth), G9 (the flat fifth becomes the fifth), Gaug9 (the flat fifth becomes the sharp fifth) or G9#11 (add the fifth).
G9b5 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant 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.