Gmadd9 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About Gmadd9 — drop 3 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
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
Gmadd9 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 13th — 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 Bb shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, 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 13 drop 2 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.