How To Turn A 7th Chord Into A Rootless 9th Chord - Theory Lesson For Guitarists

What's A Dominant 7 Chord?

Dominant seventh chords have a very important role in jazz and blues music, they are the most versatile. Indeed, they accept a lot of extensions as 9, 11, 13 and also altered tones as b5, #9, b9, #11, b13.

Firstable, you need to know that dominant 7 chords are built on the basis of a major triad (R - 3 - 5). A minor seventh is added to this triad to get a dominant seventh chord, thus giving the interval formula R (root), major third (3), fifth (5) and minor seventh (b7). For example a C7 chord is made of C (R), E (3), G (5), Bb (b7).

What's A Ninth Chord?

A ninth chord is seventh chord with a supplementary note, the ninth (9). There are three main types of ninth chords that are : Major ninth ( 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 9), minor ninth (1 - b3 - 5 - b7 - 9) and dominant ninth (1 - 3 - 5 - b7 - 9).

Even if the following technique works for any type of ninth chord, we will take the dominant 9 chord as example. As shown in the chart below, to create a dominant ninth chord from a dominant seventh chord, just add the ninth (D in the example).

What's A Rootless Chord Voicing?

The answer is in the question. A rootless chord is simply a chord whose root as been removed.

How To Build A Rootless 9th Chord From A 7th Chord?

To build rootless dominant 9 chords, just remove the root of a dominant seventh chord and replace it by the 9th. Remember that it works for any type of seventh chord (minor 7 to rootless min9 and major 7 to rootless major 9 for example)

Rootless Dominant 9 Guitar Chord Shapes (drop 2)

Here are four dominant 9 guitar chord shapes built from four drop 2 dominant 7 voicings (1 root position and 3 inversions) with bass notes on low E string. R being the root note, 3 the major third, 5 the perfect fifth and b7 the minor seventh.

The root of the 7th chord is simply raised by a whole step to get the 9th of the dominant 9 chord.

This summary table show the interval formulas related to the next guitar neck diagrams.  

Here are four dominant 9 shapes with bass notes on the A string. 

Regarding these next diagrams, the bass notes are on the D string.

Rootless Dominant 9 Guitar Chord Shapes (drop 3)

Let's tackle the dominant 9 chords based on the drop 3 dominant 7 shapes. You'll find below a recapitulative chart and the related guitar chord shapes with bass notes on the low E string.

These last dominant chord shapes have bass notes on the A string.

Comparison With Half-diminished Chords

One interesting thing which can be useful for chord substitution is that rootless dominant 9 chords shapes are actually the same as half-diminished (m7b5).

For example you can see and hear that a m7b5 chord with root in the bass is the same form as rootless dominant 9 chord with major third (3) in the bass. 

Here are eight shapes to illustrate this theory, which applies to any drop 2 or drop 3 half-diminished chord.

Comparison With minor 6 Chords

Rootless dominant 9th chord shapes can also be compared with minor 6 shapes. Let's take the minor 6 shape with the root in the bass, you see that it is actually a rootless dom9 chord with 5th in the bass.

This applies to any m7b5 drop voicings. So try to make the conversion and find the positions on the guitar.

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