Ninth Chords
Hi David,
Ok, I have comitted to memory all the notes on the C harmonica, along with the avialable notes for GM7 and Gm7 (I, IV, V chords) on each hole.
I now want to commit G9 to my memory but I want to make sure that I have got it right so that I don't memorise it incorrectly.
Would it be G Major 9:
I Chord: G B D F A
IV Chord: C E G Bb D
V Chord: D F# A C E
and is there a G minor 9:
I chord: G Bb D F A
IV chord: C Eb G Bb
V chord: D F A C
Thanks
Saul
That's great, thanks David.
I can see my error, forgot to add the ninth note on the minor chords - duh!
Yeah, I figured that. I also wanted to put the correct chord names, so you get used to seeing them.
Saul: Very cool. I'm sure David has heard this story before, but I got it from Ford's own mouth at a guitar workshop years ago. After playing with Charlie Musselwhite, Robben Ford was hired to tour with Jimmy Witherspoon. Ford confessed to Witherspoon's bass player that he was mainly a blues guy and wasn't sure how to handle Witherspoon's jazz arrangements. (Mind you, this was before Ford joined The Yellowjackets.) The bass player advised, "Just add a 9th to each chord." And as Ford tells the story, it worked every time!
Major 9th and Major 7th are very different from regular G9 and G7, even if by only one note;
G *major* 7th and 9th have an F# and not an F natural. F# is the Major 7th note in the G major scale, and has a much softer (to my ear, even "pinker") sound than the saltier, harder minor 7th of F natural (by minor in this context, I'm referring only of the seventh itself, not the character of the overall chord - the basic chord is a major chord with a minor seventh added to it).
G7 and G9 both have the F natural as a 7th. They're known, respectively, as G dominant 7th and dominant 9th chords, but when we commonly refer to seventh and ninth chords without any other specifications, itç commonly understood that we mean dominant seventh and ninth chords.
Yep. Forgot to mention the usual phrase is "dominant 9th." And "dominant 7th" just to be sure if you think the folks on the bandstand aren't blues savvy. Otherwise there's a possiblity that in the case of the 7th the audience will think you're trying to do a Brazillian samba, and in the case of the 9th they think you're trying to do ... Wagner.
Hello Saul. You're almost entirely correct... corrections below.
I9 (G9) Chord: G B D F A
IV9 (C9) Chord: C E G Bb D
V9 (D9) Chord: D F# A C E
i9 (Gm9) chord: G Bb D F A
iv9 (Cm9) chord: C Eb G Bb D
v9 (Dm9) chord: D F A C E