D#m9 — D# minor ninth chord
A minor seventh chord with the ninth added. The ninth is a whole tone above the root.
- 1 = D#
- 9 = E#
- b3 = F#
- 5 = A#
- b7 = C#
- Symbol
- D#m9
- Root
- D#
- Quality
- Minor ninth
- Family
- extended
- Notes
- D# E# F# A# C#
- Degree formula
1 9 b3 5 b7- Semitones from the root
0 2 3 7 10- Distinct pitch classes
- 5
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 2 semitones, 1 semitones, 4 semitones, 3 semitones
- Notation
- Written m9. The chord on the second, third and sixth degrees of a major key when the ninth is wanted.
- 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 |
| 9 | E# | 2 | Major second |
| b3 | F# | 3 | Minor third |
| 5 | A# | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| b7 | C# | 10 | Minor seventh |
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# – E# – F# – A# – C# | 0 2 3 7 10 |
| first inversion | E# | 9 | E# – F# – A# – C# – D# | 0 1 5 8 10 |
| second inversion | F# | b3 | F# – A# – C# – D# – E# | 0 4 7 9 11 |
| third inversion | A# | 5 | A# – C# – D# – E# – F# | 0 3 5 7 8 |
| fourth inversion | C# | b7 | C# – D# – E# – F# – A# | 0 2 4 5 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 | 11-9-11-10-11-9 | D# F# C# F A# C# | 1 b3 b7 9 5 b7 | D# | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 11-9-11-10-11-11 | D# F# C# F A# D# | 1 b3 b7 9 5 1 | D# | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 11-13-11-11-11-13 | D# A# C# F# A# F | 1 5 b7 b3 5 9 | D# | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | 11-8-8-11-11-9 | D# F A# F# A# C# | 1 9 5 b3 5 b7 | D# | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 11-9-8-10-11-9 | D# F# A# F A# C# | 1 b3 5 9 5 b7 | D# | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 11-8-11-11-11-9 | D# F C# F# A# C# | 1 9 b7 b3 5 b7 | 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# dorian
- ChordD#m7
Related
- ChordD#m7 — Minor seventh
- ChordD#11 — Dominant eleventh
- ChordD#13 — Dominant thirteenth
- ChordD#9 — Dominant ninth
- TuningEight-string standard tuning — F# B E A D G B E
- DegreesEb — degree map
- Neck mapEb — note map
- KeyKey of Eb