G♭m(add9) — G♭ minor added ninth chord
A minor triad with the ninth added and no seventh. The triad stays minor; only the colour above it changes.
- 1 = G♭
- b3 = B♭♭
- 5 = D♭
- 9 = A♭
- Symbol
- Gbm(add9)
- Root
- Gb
- Quality
- Minor added ninth
- Family
- added
- Notes
- Gb Bbb Db Ab
- Degree formula
1 b3 5 9- Semitones from the root
0 2 3 7- Distinct pitch classes
- 4
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 3 semitones, 4 semitones, 7 semitones
- Notation
- Written m(add9) or madd9. Used where a plain minor triad sounds bare, especially in fingerstyle and pop.
- Key
- Gb · Gb major / Eb minor key signature
Fingering charts
The library holds 5 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 | G♭ | 0 | Perfect unison |
| b3 | B♭♭ | 3 | Minor third |
| 5 | D♭ | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| 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♭♭ – D♭ – A♭ | 0 3 7 2 |
| first inversion | B♭♭ | b3 | B♭♭ – D♭ – A♭ – G♭ | 0 4 11 9 |
| second inversion | D♭ | 5 | D♭ – A♭ – G♭ – B♭♭ | 0 7 5 8 |
| third inversion | A♭ | 9 | A♭ – G♭ – B♭♭ – D♭ | 0 10 1 5 |
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 | 2-4-4-2-2-4 | Gb Db Gb A Db Ab | 1 5 1 b3 5 9 | Gb | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 14-11-11-14-14-14 | Gb Ab Db A Db Gb | 1 9 5 b3 5 1 | Gb | 3 | 6 |
| 3 | 14-12-11-13-14-14 | Gb A Db Ab Db Gb | 1 b3 5 9 5 1 | Gb | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 2-0-4-1-2-2 | Gb A Gb Ab Db Gb | 1 b3 1 9 5 1 | Gb | 4 | 6 |
| 5 | 2-0-4-1-2-4 | Gb A Gb Ab Db Ab | 1 b3 1 9 5 9 | Gb | 4 | 6 |
| 6 | 2-0-4-2-2-4 | Gb A Gb A Db Ab | 1 b3 1 b3 5 9 | Gb | 4 | 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 Gb
- ScaleGb natural minor
- ScaleGbadd9
- ChordGbm
- ChordGbm7
Related
- ChordG♭add9 — Added ninth
- ChordG♭m — Minor
- ChordG♭m7 — Minor seventh
- ChordG♭6 — Sixth
- ChordG♭6/9 — Sixth added ninth
- ChordG♭m6 — Minor sixth
- DegreesF# — degree map
- Neck mapF# — note map