E7#9 — E dominant seventh sharp nine chord
A dominant seventh chord with a raised ninth. It contains both the major third and the minor third in the octave above, which is what produces the chord's bite.
- 1 = E
- 3 = G#
- 5 = B
- b7 = D
- #9 = F##
- Symbol
- E7#9
- Root
- E
- Quality
- Dominant seventh sharp nine
- Family
- altered
- Notes
- E G# B D F##
- Degree formula
1 3 5 b7 #9- Semitones from the root
0 3 4 7 10- Distinct pitch classes
- 5
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 4 semitones, 3 semitones, 3 semitones, 5 semitones
- Notation
- Written 7#9, and long associated in popular usage with the chord in the introduction to Purple Haze, hence its common nickname.
- Key
- E · E major / C# minor key signature
Fingering charts
The library holds 11 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 | E | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 3 | G# | 4 | Major third |
| 5 | B | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| b7 | D | 10 | Minor seventh |
| #9 | F## | 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 | E | 1 | E – G# – B – D – F## | 0 4 7 10 3 |
| first inversion | G# | 3 | G# – B – D – F## – E | 0 3 6 11 8 |
| second inversion | B | 5 | B – D – F## – E – G# | 0 3 8 5 9 |
| third inversion | D | b7 | D – F## – E – G# – B | 0 5 2 6 9 |
| fourth inversion | F## | #9 | F## – E – G# – B – D | 0 9 1 4 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 | 12-11-12-12-12-12 | E G# D G B E | 1 3 b7 #9 5 1 | E | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 12-11-12-12-12-10 | E G# D G B D | 1 3 b7 #9 5 b7 | E | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 0-2-0-1-0-3 | E B D G# B G | 1 5 b7 3 5 #9 | E | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 0-2-0-1-3-3 | E B D G# D G | 1 5 b7 3 b7 #9 | E | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 0-2-2-1-3-3 | E B E G# D G | 1 5 1 3 b7 #9 | E | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 12-10-9-9-9-10 | E G B E G# D | 1 #9 5 1 3 b7 | E | 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 E
- ScaleE diminished (half-whole)
- ChordE7
- ChordE7b5
Related