Db7♭5#9 — Db dominant seventh flat fifth sharp ninth chord
A dominant seventh chord with both the fifth and the ninth altered: the flat fifth and the sharp ninth are the two notes that make the chord fully altered.
- 1 = Db
- 3 = F
- b5 = Abb
- b7 = Cb
- #9 = E
- Symbol
- Db7♭5#9
- Root
- Db
- Quality
- Dominant seventh flat fifth sharp ninth
- Family
- altered
- Notes
- Db F Abb Cb E
- Degree formula
1 3 b5 b7 #9- Semitones from the root
0 3 4 6 10- Distinct pitch classes
- 5
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 4 semitones, 2 semitones, 4 semitones, 5 semitones
- Notation
- Written 7♭5#9 or 7♭5(#9). A whole-tone dominant, resolving a fifth down.
- Key
- Db · Db major / Bb minor key signature
Fingering charts
The library holds 5 fingerings of this chord and all of them are shown, in the library’s own order. Several fingerings of one chord is normal: the same notes can be stopped at different positions and on different strings.
Formula
The chord tones in order from the root, with the interval each one forms above it.
| Degree | Note | Semitones | Interval from the root |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Db | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 3 | F | 4 | Major third |
| b5 | Abb | 6 | Tritone |
| b7 | Cb | 10 | Minor seventh |
| #9 | E | 3 | Minor third |
Inversions
An inversion is the same set of notes with a different one in the bass. The last column gives the distance of each note above the bass note, in semitones.
| Inversion | Bass note | Degree in the bass | Notes above the bass | Semitones above the bass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| root position | Db | 1 | Db – F – Abb – Cb – E | 0 4 6 10 3 |
| first inversion | F | 3 | F – Abb – Cb – E – Db | 0 2 6 11 8 |
| second inversion | Abb | b5 | Abb – Cb – E – Db – F | 0 4 9 6 10 |
| third inversion | Cb | b7 | Cb – E – Db – F – Abb | 0 5 2 6 8 |
| fourth inversion | E | #9 | E – Db – F – Abb – Cb | 0 9 1 3 7 |
Playable voicings
These shapes were found by searching the fretboard of a standard-tuned guitar (E A D G B E) rather than copied from a chord book. The search allows every string to sound or to be muted, rejects any shape with a muted string between two sounding strings, rejects any shape whose fretted notes span more than four frets (a five-fret window), requires every chord tone to be present, and then sorts what remains with root-position shapes first and the most compact, lowest shapes next. The shapes shown are the first six of that ordering; other orderings are possible at the same frets.
| # | Shape (low string first) | Notes | Degrees | Bass | Span (frets) | Sounding strings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9-8-9-9-8-9 | Db F B E G Db | 1 3 b7 #9 b5 1 | Db | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 9-8-9-9-8-7 | Db F B E G B | 1 3 b7 #9 b5 b7 | Db | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 9-7-9-10-8-7 | Db E B F G B | 1 #9 b7 3 b5 b7 | Db | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 9-7-9-10-8-9 | Db E B F G Db | 1 #9 b7 3 b5 1 | Db | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 9-10-9-10-12-12 | Db G B F B E | 1 b5 b7 3 b7 #9 | Db | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 9-10-11-10-12-12 | Db G Db F B E | 1 b5 1 3 b7 #9 | Db | 3 | 6 |
Shape numbers run from the lowest string to the highest, so the left-hand number is the sixth string (low E) in standard tuning. Multiple shapes are listed because a chord can be voiced several ways, and because a lower position is not always the better sounding one.
Related chords and scales
- KeyEverything in Db
- ScaleDb whole tone
- ChordDb7♭9
- ChordDb
- ChordDb7
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