Gmadd9 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 Gmadd9 — uncommon 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.
Minor tonic — a triad with one colour on it.
Gmadd9 notes and formula
| G | Bb | D | A |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 9 |
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
All 9 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 310233, open position, G, root position, top note G, barred
- 355335, 3rd fret, G, root position, top note A, barred
- xx5335, 3rd fret, G, root position, top note A, all fretted
- xx7086, 6th fret, A, 9th in the bass, top note Bb, 1 open string
- xx8785, 5th fret, Bb, 1st inversion, top note A, all fretted
- x-10-8-7-10-x, 7th fret, G, root position, top note A, all fretted
- x-10-8-x-10-10, 8th fret, G, root position, top note D, barred
- x-13-12-12-10-x, 10th fret, Bb, 1st inversion, top note A, all fretted
- 15-13-x-14-15-x, 13th fret, G, root position, top note D, all fretted
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 natural minor, G dorian, G harmonic minor and G melodic minor.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Gmadd9 sits in it. Every scale.
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 the fourth), Gm6 (the ninth becomes the sixth), Gm69 (add the sixth) or Gm7 (the ninth becomes the flat seventh).
Gmadd9 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.