F7♭9 — F 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 = F
- 3 = A
- 5 = C
- b7 = Eb
- b9 = Gb
- Symbol
- F7♭9
- Root
- F
- Quality
- Dominant seventh flat ninth
- Family
- altered
- Notes
- F A C Eb Gb
- 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
- F · F major / D minor key signature
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 | F | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 3 | A | 4 | Major third |
| 5 | C | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| b7 | Eb | 10 | Minor seventh |
| b9 | Gb | 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 | F | 1 | F – A – C – Eb – Gb | 0 4 7 10 1 |
| first inversion | A | 3 | A – C – Eb – Gb – F | 0 3 6 9 8 |
| second inversion | C | 5 | C – Eb – Gb – F – A | 0 3 6 5 9 |
| third inversion | Eb | b7 | Eb – Gb – F – A – C | 0 3 2 6 9 |
| fourth inversion | Gb | b9 | Gb – F – A – C – Eb | 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 | 1-0-1-2-1-2 | F A Eb A C Gb | 1 3 b7 3 5 b9 | F | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 1-3-1-2-1-2 | F C Eb A C Gb | 1 5 b7 3 5 b9 | F | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 13-12-13-11-13-11 | F A Eb Gb C Eb | 1 3 b7 b9 5 b7 | F | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | 13-12-13-11-13-13 | F A Eb Gb C F | 1 3 b7 b9 5 1 | F | 2 | 6 |
| 5 | 13-12-13-14-13-14 | F A Eb A C Gb | 1 3 b7 3 5 b9 | F | 2 | 6 |
| 6 | 13-15-13-14-13-14 | F C Eb A C Gb | 1 5 b7 3 5 b9 | F | 2 | 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 F
- ScaleF diminished (half-whole)
- ChordF7
- ChordF
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