Gmadd9 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 Gmadd9 — drop 2 voicings
Gmadd9 is G, Bb, D and A — Gm with the ninth added, and no seventh.
It sounds sharp-edged. The ninth grinding a whole step under the minor third is the edge an m9 softens.
Gmadd9 notes and formula
| G | Bb | D | A |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 9 |
Minor tonic — a triad with one colour on it.
Also written Gm(add9), Gmin(add9) or G-add9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gmadd9
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.
Gmadd9 has 13 of them, on the bottom four strings, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: G in the bass, Bb in the bass, D 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.
Start with xx7086 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. 3 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 310233 | open position | G, root position | G | barred |
| 355335 | 3rd fret | G, root position | A | barred |
| xx5335 | 3rd fret | G, root position | A | all fretted |
| xx7086 | 6th fret | A, 9th in the bass | Bb | 1 open string |
| xx8785 | 5th fret | Bb, 1st inversion | A | all fretted |
| x-10-8-7-10-x | 7th fret | G, root position | A | all fretted |
| x-10-8-x-10-10 | 8th fret | G, root position | D | barred |
| x-13-12-12-10-x | 10th fret | Bb, 1st inversion | A | all fretted |
| 15-13-x-14-15-x | 13th fret | G, root position | D | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 9 drop 3 and 2 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Gmadd9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Gmadd9 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 Gmadd9 belongs to D minor (the iv, the subdominant), F major (the ii, the supertonic), G minor (the i, the tonic) and Bb major (the vi, the submediant).
What to play over Gmadd9
Every note of Gmadd9 is in G dorian, G natural minor, G harmonic minor and G melodic minor.
Chords near Gmadd9
Change one note of Gmadd9 and you have Gm (drop the ninth), Gsus2 (drop the minor third), Gsus2sus4 (the minor third becomes a fourth), Gm6 (the ninth becomes a sixth), Gm69 (add the sixth) or Gm7 (the ninth becomes a flat seventh).
Gmadd9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Gmadd9’s sound and use this page follows Robert Rawlins & Nor Eddine Bahha, Jazzology (Hal Leonard, 2005). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.