G7♭9 — G 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 = G
- 3 = B
- 5 = D
- b7 = F
- b9 = Ab
- Symbol
- G7♭9
- Root
- G
- Quality
- Dominant seventh flat ninth
- Family
- altered
- Notes
- G B D F Ab
- 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
- G · G major / E 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 | G | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 3 | B | 4 | Major third |
| 5 | D | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| b7 | F | 10 | Minor seventh |
| b9 | Ab | 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 | G | 1 | G – B – D – F – Ab | 0 4 7 10 1 |
| first inversion | B | 3 | B – D – F – Ab – G | 0 3 6 9 8 |
| second inversion | D | 5 | D – F – Ab – G – B | 0 3 6 5 9 |
| third inversion | F | b7 | F – Ab – G – B – D | 0 3 2 6 9 |
| fourth inversion | Ab | b9 | Ab – G – B – D – F | 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 | 3-2-3-1-3-1 | G B F G# D F | 1 3 b7 b9 5 b7 | G | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 3-2-3-1-3-3 | G B F G# D G | 1 3 b7 b9 5 1 | G | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 3-2-3-4-3-4 | G B F B D G# | 1 3 b7 3 5 b9 | G | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | 3-5-3-4-3-4 | G D F B D G# | 1 5 b7 3 5 b9 | G | 2 | 6 |
| 5 | 15-14-15-13-15-13 | G B F G# D F | 1 3 b7 b9 5 b7 | G | 2 | 6 |
| 6 | 15-14-15-13-15-15 | G B F G# D G | 1 3 b7 b9 5 1 | G | 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 G
- ScaleG diminished (half-whole)
- ChordG7
- ChordG
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