Db7♭9 — Db dominant seventh flat ninth chord
A dominant seventh chord with the ninth flattened. The flat ninth sits a semitone above the root in the octave above, and the chord resolves down a fifth.
- 1 = Db
- 3 = F
- 5 = Ab
- b7 = Cb
- b9 = Ebb
- Symbol
- Db7♭9
- Root
- Db
- Quality
- Dominant seventh flat ninth
- Family
- altered
- Notes
- Db F Ab Cb Ebb
- Degree formula
1 3 5 b7 b9- Semitones from the root
0 1 4 7 10- Distinct pitch classes
- 5
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 4 semitones, 3 semitones, 3 semitones, 3 semitones
- Notation
- Written 7♭9. The dominant of a minor key, because the flat ninth belongs to the harmonic minor scale of the target.
- Key
- Db · Db major / Bb minor key signature
Fingering charts
The library holds 2 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 |
| 5 | Ab | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| b7 | Cb | 10 | Minor seventh |
| b9 | Ebb | 1 | Minor second |
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 – Ab – Cb – Ebb | 0 4 7 10 1 |
| first inversion | F | 3 | F – Ab – Cb – Ebb – Db | 0 3 6 9 8 |
| second inversion | Ab | 5 | Ab – Cb – Ebb – Db – F | 0 3 6 5 9 |
| third inversion | Cb | b7 | Cb – Ebb – Db – F – Ab | 0 3 2 6 9 |
| fourth inversion | Ebb | b9 | Ebb – Db – F – Ab – Cb | 0 11 3 6 9 |
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 | 9-8-9-7-9-7 | Db F B D Ab B | 1 3 b7 b9 5 b7 | Db | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 9-8-9-7-9-9 | Db F B D Ab Db | 1 3 b7 b9 5 1 | Db | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 9-8-9-10-9-10 | Db F B F Ab D | 1 3 b7 3 5 b9 | Db | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | 9-11-9-10-9-10 | Db Ab B F Ab D | 1 5 b7 3 5 b9 | Db | 2 | 6 |
| 5 | 9-8-6-7-6-7 | Db F Ab D F B | 1 3 5 b9 3 b7 | Db | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 9-8-6-7-9-7 | Db F Ab D Ab B | 1 3 5 b9 5 b7 | 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 diminished (half-whole)
- ChordDb7
- ChordDb
Related