Gaug9 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 Gaug9 — uncommon voicings
Gaug9 is G, B, D#, F and A — G7 with the fifth raised and the natural ninth added on top.
It sounds bright, tense and slightly unreal. Raising the fifth leaves no semitone in the lower half of the chord, which is where the whole-tone flavour comes from.
Altered dominant — dominant pull with a whole-tone colour.
Gaug9 notes and formula
| G | B | D# | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 | ♭7 | 9 |
Also written G9#5, G+9 or G9(#5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gaug9
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep B and F (they fix the quality) and D# 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 Gaug9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (C#).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 301001, open position, G, root position, top note F, 3 open strings
- 32324x, 2nd fret, G, root position, top note D#, all fretted
- 3x3445, 3rd fret, G, root position, top note A, all fretted
- xx3445, 3rd fret, F, 3rd inversion, top note A, all fretted
- 787887, 7th fret, B, 1st inversion, top note B, barred
- x-10-9-10-10-11, 9th fret, G, root position, top note D#, barred
- x-12-13-0-12-13, 12th fret, A, 9th in the bass, top note F, 1 open string
- 13-12-13-12-12-13, 12th fret, F, 3rd inversion, top note F, barred
How to use Gaug9
Gaug9 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→Gaug9→Cmaj7— the ii–V–I of C.
Voice by voice, Gaug9 → C. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In Gaug9 | Moves | In C |
|---|---|---|
| G, the root | stays where it is | G, the fifth |
| B, the major third | rises a semitone | C, the root |
| D#, the sharp fifth | rises a semitone | E, the major third |
| 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 Gaug9
Every note of Gaug9 is in G whole tone.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Gaug9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Gaug9
Change one note of Gaug9 and you have Galt (the ninth becomes the flat ninth), Gaug7 (drop the ninth), G9 (the sharp fifth becomes the fifth) or G9b5 (the sharp fifth becomes the flat fifth).
Gaug9 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.