G9♭5 — G dominant ninth flat fifth chord
A dominant ninth chord with the fifth flattened. The flat fifth and the ninth together outline a whole-tone scale above the root.
- 1 = G
- 3 = B
- b5 = Db
- b7 = F
- 9 = A
- Symbol
- G9♭5
- Root
- G
- Quality
- Dominant ninth flat fifth
- Family
- altered
- Notes
- G B Db F A
- Degree formula
1 3 b5 b7 9- Semitones from the root
0 2 4 6 10- Distinct pitch classes
- 5
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 4 semitones, 2 semitones, 4 semitones, 4 semitones
- Notation
- Written 9♭5. An altered dominant in jazz, and the first half of a tritone substitution pair.
- 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 |
| b5 | Db | 6 | Tritone |
| b7 | F | 10 | Minor seventh |
| 9 | A | 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 | G | 1 | G – B – Db – F – A | 0 4 6 10 2 |
| first inversion | B | 3 | B – Db – F – A – G | 0 2 6 10 8 |
| second inversion | Db | b5 | Db – F – A – G – B | 0 4 8 6 10 |
| third inversion | F | b7 | F – A – G – B – Db | 0 4 2 6 8 |
| fourth inversion | A | 9 | A – G – B – Db – F | 0 10 2 4 8 |
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 | 3-2-3-2-2-3 | G B F A C# G | 1 3 b7 9 b5 1 | G | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 15-14-15-14-14-15 | G B F A C# G | 1 3 b7 9 b5 1 | G | 1 | 6 |
| 3 | 3-2-3-2-2-1 | G B F A C# F | 1 3 b7 9 b5 b7 | G | 2 | 6 |
| 4 | 15-14-15-14-14-13 | G B F A C# F | 1 3 b7 9 b5 b7 | G | 2 | 6 |
| 5 | 3-2-3-2-2-5 | G B F A C# A | 1 3 b7 9 b5 9 | G | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 3-2-3-4-2-5 | G B F B C# A | 1 3 b7 3 b5 9 | G | 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 G
- ScaleG whole tone
- ChordG9
- ChordG
- ChordG7
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