This week’s Guitar Chord Of The Week is a minor 9 chord.
Minor 9 Chord
We’ve looked at a minor 9 chord shape before in this series (see the articles here and here).
This week’s shape is a slightly more unusual way of playing a minor 9 chord. Read on to find out how to play it.
Like last week’s diminished 7th chord, this shape is played on the top four strings.
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Minor 9 Chord Theory
Theoretically, minor 9th chords should contain the root, minor 3rd, fifth, minor 7th and ninth notes.
If the chord was Am9 then these notes would be: A, C, E, G and B.
In practice, as we have found with other guitar chords, certain notes sometimes have to be omitted. This is done either because there are more notes in the chord than there are strings or to produce a particular sound.
This week’s minor 9 shape actually omits the root note. This gives the chord a somewhat ambiguous, ‘open’ sound.
The diagram at the top of the page shows where the root note would be with the symbol ‘(R)’: use this to position the chord correctly.
For example, to play a Dm9 with this shape, position it at the 6th position, as shown below.
Open A Minor 9 Chord
If you play this chord shape in 1st position then the chord produced is an Am9. Add the open A string, as shown below, to produce a very nice sounding open Am9 chord.
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Example Chord Progression Using This Minor 9 Shape
Practice playing this chord using the progression below.
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