B 9th Guitar Chord
Voicing Positions (6)
Interval Colors
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B 9th Chord
The B 9th chord is built from the intervals: Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 5th, and Minor 7th. It contains the notes B, C#, D#, F#, and A. As an extended chord, it adds color and depth beyond the basic triad.
What B 9th Is
The B 9th is a dominant chord — a major triad with a flat seventh added on top. That added minor seventh creates a tritone with the major third (the famous "devil in music" interval), which is what makes dominant chords sound restless and what makes them the gravitational engine of tonal music. Every dominant chord wants to resolve, usually down a perfect fifth to the chord that shares its target as a root.
How B 9th Sounds
A B 9th rarely sounds final on its own. It carries a built-in sense of leaning forward, of needing to resolve. In blues this restless quality is often left unresolved on every chord of a 12-bar form, which is part of why blues sounds the way it does. In jazz and pop, dominant sevenths typically resolve down a fifth — V7 to I — completing a phrase.
How To Use B 9th In A Progression
Dominant seventh chords are the engine of cadences. The most common use is V7 → I in a major key (so B 9th would resolve to the chord a perfect fifth below the root). They also drive secondary dominants — chords that briefly tonicize a non-tonic chord — and are the backbone of every 12-bar blues progression.
Playing B 9th On Guitar
On guitar, the most common voicings of B 9th use the open position when possible (which is why guitarists tend to favour keys like E, A, D, G, and C) and movable barre or half-barre shapes everywhere else. The voicing diagrams above show several practical positions across the neck — the open or low-fret voicings will sound brightest, while the higher voicings will have a thinner, more focused tone. Always experiment with which fingering serves the line you are playing.
Related Chords
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