Minor add9 chords: minor with a ninth

A minor add9 chord keeps everything that makes a minor chord sad and adds one note that lets light into it. The result is fragile, intimate, slightly cinematic: the sound of a slow arpeggio at the start of a ballad. It is also one of the easiest rich chords to play, because on the guitar the extra note is often an open string or a single finger away from a shape you already know.

What a minor add9 chord is

Take a minor triad and add the ninth: 1, b3, 5, 9. A minor is A, C, E; Am(add9) is A, C, E, B. Cm(add9) is C, Eb, G, D.

The detail that gives the chord its sound is the distance between two of its notes. The ninth sits a whole step above the root, and the minor third sits a half step above the ninth. In Am(add9), B and C are right next to each other. When a voicing places those two notes close together, as the open Am(add9) shape does, you hear a soft rub inside the chord. That rub is the whole point.

The shapes to learn

Em(add9) and Am(add9) are the two to learn first. Em(add9) is a plain E minor with the fourth finger added on the first string. Am(add9) is the famous one: an A minor with the fourth finger stretched to the fourth fret of the third string, which puts B right under the C on the second string.

The last two diagrams are the same shape, and it is the one to keep for every other root. The root is on the fourth string under the third finger, the first finger lays a small barre two frets lower across the third and second strings, and the fourth finger adds the ninth on the first string at the root fret. Only four strings, no stretch, and it moves anywhere:

At the second fret the shape meets the open strings: Em(add9) becomes x x 2 0 0 2, with the third and second strings ringing open. For a fuller sound with the root in the bass, the full barre version of Fm(add9) is 1 3 3 1 1 3, and Bm(add9) can be played x 2 4 6 3 2, a real stretch across five frets.

How to use minor add9 chords

The simplest use is substitution. Find a minor chord in a progression, ideally one that lasts a full bar or more, and replace it with its minor add9. The harmony does not change; the color does.

• Am, F, C, G becomes Am(add9), F, C, G.
• Em, C, G, D becomes Em(add9), C, G, D.
• Dm, Bb, F, C becomes Dm(add9), Bb, F, C.

These chords shine in arpeggios. Pick the notes one string at a time and the rub between the ninth and the minor third becomes a small melody of its own. Strummed hard, the same chord can sound muddy.

Know when to leave it out. If the chord needs to sound direct, if the melody sits on the root and clashes with the ninth, or if the shape slows your changes down, play the plain minor. And if every chord becomes a minor add9, the progression starts to float. The minor chords page has the plain shapes to come back to.