D#6/9 — D# sixth added ninth chord
A major triad with the sixth and the ninth added, and no seventh. The two added notes are a whole tone apart, which is why the chord sounds open rather than tense.
- 1 = D#
- 3 = F##
- 5 = A#
- 6 = B#
- 9 = E#
- Symbol
- D#6/9
- Root
- D#
- Quality
- Sixth added ninth
- Family
- added
- Notes
- D# F## A# B# E#
- Degree formula
1 3 5 6 9- Semitones from the root
0 2 4 7 9- Distinct pitch classes
- 5
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 4 semitones, 3 semitones, 2 semitones, 5 semitones
- Notation
- Written 6/9 or 6add9. Common as a tonic chord in jazz, bossa nova and soul, and as the closing chord of a turnaround.
- Key
- D# · Eb major / C minor key signature
Fingering charts
The library holds 4 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 | D# | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 3 | F## | 4 | Major third |
| 5 | A# | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| 6 | B# | 9 | Major sixth |
| 9 | E# | 2 | Major 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 | D# | 1 | D# – F## – A# – B# – E# | 0 4 7 9 2 |
| first inversion | F## | 3 | F## – A# – B# – E# – D# | 0 3 5 10 8 |
| second inversion | A# | 5 | A# – B# – E# – D# – F## | 0 2 7 5 9 |
| third inversion | B# | 6 | B# – E# – D# – F## – A# | 0 5 3 7 10 |
| fourth inversion | E# | 9 | E# – D# – F## – A# – B# | 0 10 2 5 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 | 11-10-10-10-11-11 | D# G C F A# D# | 1 3 6 9 5 1 | D# | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 11-13-13-12-13-13 | D# A# D# G C F | 1 5 1 3 6 9 | D# | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 11-8-8-8-8-8 | D# F A# D# G C | 1 9 5 1 3 6 | D# | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 11-8-8-10-8-8 | D# F A# F G C | 1 9 5 9 3 6 | D# | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 11-10-8-10-8-8 | D# G A# F G C | 1 3 5 9 3 6 | D# | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 11-10-8-10-11-8 | D# G A# F A# C | 1 3 5 9 5 6 | D# | 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 D#
- ScaleD# major
- ChordD#6
- ChordD#
- ChordD#7
Related
- ChordD#6 — Sixth
- ChordD# — Major
- ChordD#7 — Dominant seventh
- ChordD#add9 — Added ninth
- ChordD#m6 — Minor sixth
- ChordD#m6/9 — Minor sixth added ninth
- DegreesEb — degree map
- Neck mapEb — note map