Gm69 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 Gm69 — drop 2 voicings
Gm69 is G, Bb, D, E and A — Gm6 with the ninth added as well.
It sounds cool and entirely at rest. No seventh, so nothing leans: a common last chord of a minor tune.
Minor tonic — nothing in it is pulling.
Gm69 notes and formula
| G | Bb | D | E | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
Also written Gm6/9, Gmin6/9 or G-6/9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gm69
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.
Gm69 has 13 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, Bb in the bass, E in the bass and A 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.
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep Bb (it fixes the quality) and E and A (what the symbol is about). Let D and G go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play Gm69 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (C).
All 9 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 310230, open position, G, root position, top note E, 2 open strings
- 3122xx, 1st fret, G, root position, top note A, all fretted
- x12233, 1st fret, Bb, 1st inversion, top note G, all fretted
- 3x2335, 2nd fret, G, root position, top note A, barred
- 3x5355, 3rd fret, G, root position, top note A, barred
- xx5355, 3rd fret, G, root position, top note A, barred
- x55355, 3rd fret, D, 2nd inversion, top note A, barred
- 655755, 5th fret, Bb, 1st inversion, top note A, barred
- x-10-8-9-10-x, 8th fret, G, root position, top note A, all fretted
How to use Gm69
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Gm69 is Am7♭5 to D7♭9: the ii and the V of G minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Gm69 belongs to D minor (the iv, the subdominant) and F major (the ii, the supertonic).
What to play over Gm69
Every note of Gm69 is in G dorian and G melodic minor.
Chords near Gm69
Change one note of Gm69 and you have Gm6 (drop the ninth), Gm9 (the sixth becomes the flat seventh), GmMaj9 (the sixth becomes the major seventh), Gmadd9 (drop the sixth) or G69 (the minor third becomes the major third).
Gm69 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.