mike livengood (lvengood@gene.

com)

a number of questions have appeared lately regarding chord construction;

in particular 9th chords. so let's sit down for a minute and take a look
at 9th chords, shall we?

first...what is a 9th??
heck, this is easy...a 9th refers to the note a major 9th above the
root. what's that you ask? well, let's take apart a c9 chord and figure
it out.

first, the c major scale (all first graders sing along now)

c-d-e-f-g-a-b

ok, now the c major triad (root...major third...fifth)

c-e-g (think beer keg and you'll never forget it)

now add the seventh (count seven notes up from c using c as 1)

did you all land on b? (those who didn't go to the back of the class)
now we have to add one little detail that might mess some of you up. we
have to change the b to a bb. don't scream...all will be revealed later.

so where were we? oh yes...we now have the following:

c-e-g-bb or a c7 (c dominant seventh chord).

let's tab these out for reference.

c c c7 c7
e-3----0---3----3--
b-5----1---5----1--
g-5-or-0---3-or-3--< note flatted 7th here
d-5----2---5----2--
a-3----3---3----3--
e------------------

so now let's add the 9th (count nine notes up from c using c as 1).
good thing we have enough fingers for this one.

so we now know that d is the 9th degree of the c major scale. (but wait,
it is also the second degree of the scale). true, true...this is why it's
easy to confuse the 9th chords with the suspended 2nd chords. the main
difference is that the 9th chord has a third, whereas the suspended
chord has the third replaced with the second, or a fourth too for that
matter. for all intents and purposes these suspended chords could be
called "add9 no third" chords, but the term suspended has become
customary for guitars so we'll use it here. usually the 9th of the chord
is of a higher pitch than the octave which truly makes it a ninth and not
a second. here's a layout of what we have so far.

c..........c-e-g
c7.........c-e-g-bb
c9.........c-e-g-bb-d
csus2......c-d-g (or cadd9 no 3)
csus4......c-f-g (or cadd11 no 3)
c7sus2.....c-d-g-bb
c7sus4.....c-f-g-bb
c9sus4.....c-f-g-bb-d
cadd9......c-e-g-d
csus4add9..c-f-g-d

hey, see these last two? i just added a 9 to a c triad. so what's the
difference between that and a c9?...you guessed it...no seventh. see
you're catching on.

so, could you have a c9sus2? sure i suppose. it would be c-d-g-bb-d.

since this results in an octave (the d's) we would most likely refer to
this as c9no third, but the notes are the same.

let's tab some of these out for reference.

c9 csus2 csus4 c7sus2 c7sus4 c9sus4

e-3----3-------3-------3-------3------3---
b-3----3-------6-------3-------6------3---
g-3----5-------5-------3-------3------3---
d-2----5-------5-------5-------5------3---
a-3----3-------3-------3-------3------3---
e-----------------------------------------

cadd9 csus4add9
e-3-----0----3-----0--
b-5-----3----6-----3--
g-7--or-0----7--or-0--
d-5-----2----5-----3--
a-3-----3----3-----3--
e---------------------

note that an 'add9' sounds great and although it is a bit of a stretch

can be very useful. just ask andy summers.

ok, i said that all will be revealed regarding the flat seventh. here
goes.

there are two families of seventh chords, the dominant seventh and the
major seventh. (just because one's called dominant doesn't mean it's any
better). the difference between the two is that the dominant seventh
chords have a flat seventh and the major seventh chords have a natural
seventh. and, of course, they sound different.

so:
c7.....c-e-g-bb
cmaj7..c-e-g-b

fyi: the dominant seventh chord has a flat seventh and is called
dominant because it is built upon the dominant (5th) of the scale. if we
build a chord based on the 5th degree of the c major scale we start on g.
so a g7 has the notes (g-b-d-f) and is built from the 5th of the c major
scale. the f is sharped in the key of g, but is normal in the key of c.
hint: count every other note in the c major scale...the first chord you
get is c (c-e-g) the second chord you get if you continue from there is
g7 (g-b-d-f).
when we add a 9th onto a cmaj7 chord (c-e-g-b) we get a cmaj9 chord
(c-e-g-b-d)

cmaj7 cmaj9 or
e-0--------0-----7--
b-0--------3-----8--
g-0--------4-----7--
d-2--------2-----x-- <(if you play the a here you get
a-3--------3-----7-- a cmaj13)
e----------------8--

oh oh! wait a minute. lest we not forget minors! (it's ok, all those
under 18 can keep reading.)

remember that a minor triad has a minor third instead of a major third.
so we get c-eb-g for a c minor.

now everything else remains the same as before.

cm...... c-eb-g
cm7..... c-eb-g-bb
cm(maj7).c-eb-g-b
cm9......c-eb-g-bb-d
cmsus4...c-f-g

stop the word processor!! what's this? a cmsus4 has the same notes as a
csus4! how could this be? well, i suppose you have already figured out
that since it is the third of the chord that determines the major or
minor flavor of it, replacing it with another note removes the major
minor flavor.

the notation cmsus4 is proper if the chord resolves to a cm. also, to be

a truly suspended chord, the chord must resolve, but that's a different
story.

let's tab out these new chords, shall we?

cm cm7 cm(maj7) cm9 cmsus4

e-3----3-------3-------3-------3---
b-4----4-------4-------3-------6---
g-5----3-------4-------3-------5---
d-5----5-------5-------1-------5---
a-3----3-------3-------3-------3---
e----------------------------------

ok. now you should all be experts at constructing 9th chords. don't you
feel great?

any additions or corrections are welcome..