Gmaj9 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 Gmaj9 — uncommon voicings
Gmaj9 is G, B, D, F# and A — Gmaj7 with the ninth stacked above it.
It sounds a maj7 with more air in it. The ninth argues with nothing here, so it works anywhere a maj7 does.
Tonic — an extended resting chord.
Gmaj9 notes and formula
| G | B | D | F# | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Also written GM9, GΔ9, Gma9 or G major 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gmaj9
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep B and F# (they fix the quality) 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 Gmaj9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (C#) or the 13 (E).
All 12 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 300002, open position, G, root position, top note F#, 4 open strings
- 324232, 2nd fret, G, root position, top note F#, barred
- 354435, 3rd fret, G, root position, top note A, all fretted
- xx4435, 3rd fret, F#, 3rd inversion, top note A, all fretted
- xx5475, 4th fret, G, root position, top note A, all fretted
- 755775, 5th fret, B, 1st inversion, top note A, barred
- x-10-7-7-7-7, 7th fret, G, root position, top note B, barred
- x-10-9-11-10-x, 9th fret, G, root position, top note A, all fretted
- 10-10-9-11-10-x, 9th fret, D, 2nd inversion, top note A, barred
- x-12-12-12-12-14, 12th fret, A, 9th in the bass, top note F#, barred
- x-x-12-14-12-14, 12th fret, D, 2nd inversion, top note F#, all fretted
- 15-12-12-12-12-14, 12th fret, G, root position, top note F#, barred
How to use Gmaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Gmaj9 is Am7 to D7 — the ii and the V of G — and D7 shares its third and seventh with Am7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Gmaj9 belongs to D major (the IV, the subdominant), E minor (the ♭III), G major (the I, the tonic) and B minor (the ♭VI).
What to play over Gmaj9
Every note of Gmaj9 is in G major and G lydian.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Gmaj9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Gmaj9
Change one note of Gmaj9 and you have Gmaj7 (drop the ninth), Gmaj11 (add the eleventh), Gmaj13 (add the thirteenth), GmMaj9 (the major third becomes the minor third), Gadd9 (drop the major seventh) or G69 (the major seventh becomes the sixth).
Gmaj9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major 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.