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How to Play and Apply Add9 Chords

To make chords, chord progressions and songs more colorful guitar players use chord embellishments.

Chords like sus2, sus4, maj6, maj7 and add9 can all be used to spice up your playing and create more interesting sounds.

The add9 chord is a big favorite in pop and acoustic rock music.

Chord Analysis

The add9 chord is simply a major triad with an added ninth (9).
The major triad consists of the root (1), the major third (3) and the perfect fifth (5).
So the add9 chord formula = 1 3 5 9

Let’s take Cadd9 chord as an example.
We look at the C major scale: C D E F G A B C and we take the root (1st), 3rd, 5th and 9th note of that scale and you get the notes: C-E-G-D. So Cadd9 = C E G D

Extended Chords 9th 11th 13th for Guitar

By Klaus Crow 7 Comments

Extended chords are usually used in jazz music, but also in other styles like pop, blues and latin music to spice up chord progressions and add some nice flavor to the chords.

When I first learned the theory behind extended chords, it opened up a whole new world for me. All these mysterious chord names made finally sense.

I would use the chords for my own material, incorporate them into some of my favorite guitar songs and started learning some wicked jazz tunes.

Once you play around, experiment and incorporate these chords into your playing it will make guitar playing really fun and colorful.

If you’re new to chord construction then first check out How to Use Chord Formulas and Their Benefits and How to Play The Most Common Types of 7th Chords. These posts will give you the basic chord theory you need.

Let’s dive in…

Triads and 7th Chords

Extended chords are the 9th, 11th and 13th chords.

To understand the chord structure of extended chords we must first know the major and minor triad and three types of seventh chords. We use the “C” chord as an example to show the chord names.

How to Read a Chord Diagram and Other Chord Notation

By Klaus Crow 12 Comments

Bigstock photo
The first thing you want to do when you start out playing guitar is learn how to read a chord diagram (and buying a guitar).

Knowing how to read a chord diagram or other types of chord notations is pretty much essential when you want to learn pop, rock, blues or any other style of music.

When you go out and buy a guitar book, most books will show the chord diagrams for the appropriate song, but you will also find them on the web, in music notation software and apps.

In the beginning you will only have to acquire a small chord vocabulary to get you playing lots of songs. So let’s get this baby rolling!

There are different types of chord notation. We’ll start with the most traditional and accurate one.

How to Read a Chord Diagram

The chord diagram represent the neck of the guitar (see image below).
The six vertical lines represent the six strings on the guitar. From left to right; low E string, A string, D string, G string, B string and high E string or also called: 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st string.

The horizontal top line (which is thicker than the lower horizontal lines) indicates the nut of the guitar. The second horizontal line is the 1st fret, followed by the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th fret.

How to Use Chord Formulas and Their Benefits

By Klaus Crow 23 Comments

Why do you need chord formulas? Why do want to learn about them in the first place and what are their benefits?

Knowing some basic chord theory can make all the difference to your playing. It makes guitar playing more fun, interesting and a lot of what you play will make more sense. The pieces of the puzzle will fall in place.

Knowing how chord formulas work and knowing the notes on the strings is the ultimate combination.

What can you do with chord formulas?

– Learn how to make your own chords.
– Understand music theory.
– Figure out how to play a chord when you only have the name of a chord.
– Understanding the difference between chords like Dom7, Maj7 and min7.
– Make a chord easier to play if your pinky can’t reach for the major 7 or any other nasty note.
– Quickly turn a G major chord into Gsus4, G7, Gmaj7, G13 or any other variation you think of.
– Learn to see how easy it is to change from major to minor or any other chord.
– Apply the knowledge to your rhythm playing, songwriting, soloing and improvisation.
– Discover how chord formulas relate to every aspect of guitar playing as your knowledge expands over time.

What is a Chord Formula?

Chord formulas reveals the chord structure. It shows all the notes that are played in a chord, in other words, which specific notes make up a particular chord.

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