Put a nickel in the graveyard machine

C(#9/#11)

X3X042

This chord is from Bottle of Blues, off Beck’s album Mutations. Beck plays the song in an alternate tuning that makes this chord a snap, but I’ve never been a fan of alternate tunings. Unless you really commit to them (or you’re in a studio cutting one of the great alternative albums of the 90s), they’re a hassle. So I arranged Bottle of Blues in standard tuning. To replicate the jarring initial riff, I play a regular C chord, muting the E note on the 4^th string

C

X3X010

Then I hammer the #9^th on the 2^nd string with my little finger and the #11^th on the first string with my middle finger at the same time. This chord is played for the first half of a beat of each measure in the verse. A note on the name: if I were to name this chord (to be clear, I mean C(#9/#11), not C) with no context at all, I would call it a D11(♭9 no root) or an A-13(♭5 no root). Yuck. Those are the best tertian descriptions I can come up with for this chord. However, in this context it's clear that we're just adding bluesy color notes to a C major chord. We're not changing the tonality of the passage to minor, despite swapping out a major third for a minor third, or #9.

When Beck moves to the chorus, there’s another jarring section, only this time it’s in the chord progression itself, i.e. the juxtaposition of chords and their function in the key, rather than within a single chord:

              D9                       A♭

I get higher then lower

              D9                       A♭

I get higher then lower

D9

2X0210

A♭

46654X

This is a well voice-led passage; it has one whole-step jump in the bass, one fixed note (though it does jump a string—C) and the rest moving only a half-step, one up and two down. It will take your ear some getting used to, but the notes are very close to each other.

FΔ7(9/13 no 3rd)

Take four consecutive white keys on a piano and see what chords you can make. Sorry to be anticlimactic, but here are the answers. They can each be named by the second note:

C, D E, F:            D-9

D, E, F, G:           E-7♭9

E, F, G, A:           FΔ9

F, G, A, B:           G9

G, A, B, C:          A-9

A, B, C, D:          B-7♭9

B, C, D, E:          CΔ9

None of these contains a 5^th degree, but that’s OK since the natural 5^th is the least important degree there is. Notice that they group into four categories based on the pattern of whole and half steps:

W, W, W:           G9

H, W, W:            CΔ9, FΔ9

W, H, W:            E-7♭9, B-7♭9

W, W, H:            D-9, A-9

One more pattern, allowed by the harmonic and melodic minor scales, is possible:

H, W, H:             A-Δ9 (for instance) = G#, A, B, C

H, H, H would be a 4-cluster, e.g A#, B, C, D♭. This is not easily played on the guitar and not super useful musically, outside of atonal concert music. My favorites of the chords from this list are the minor7♭9s, e.g.

D, E, F, G = D-(9/11)

     = E-7♭9

     = FΔ7(9/13 no 3rd)

     = G13 (no 3^rd)

Though they're all the same chord, most of the voicings below will have F in the bass, so I'll use that third name from here out. This chord type sounds phenomenal in the close voicings permitted by the ukulele. Two close voicings are fingerable on the guitar (these will be an octave lower than their versions on the uke):

FΔ7(9/13 no 3rd)

X8575X or

X(10)(12)(9)(6)X

That second one, with a 6-fret stretch, is not a beginner chord. Try exploiting an open string to make it easy, e.g.

E7(9/13 no 3rd)

X(9)(11)(8)X(0)

It helps if you play fingerstyle. Sorry about that one! These denser chord types tend be either quite ergonomic or maddeningly difficult to fret. Here’s an moderately difficult drop-2 form:

FΔ7(9/13 no 3rd)

X(8)(12)(9)(8)X

And a lovely drop-3 form

FΔ7(9/13 no 3rd)

(13)X(14)(12)(15)X

E-7♭5 with two different tensions

On page 238 of the greatest guitar chord book ever written, "Song Example #7," begins thus

E-7♭5_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
E-7♭5(11) E-7♭5(9)

The E-7♭5 is from some imagined chart, and the two chords below it are what Bret Willmott suggests you actually play. They are accompanied by top notes determining the position at which you play them. These are also the defining colors of the chords: A above middle C for the first chord and F# above middle C for the second. Per the prescription of the book (and this blog, for the most part) we will only consider 4-note voicings on strings 2-5. First, here's an E-7♭5 that's would work perfectly had Willmott not fancied it up:

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Starting from here, it would be easy to just move the top note up to A, and then back down to F#

E-7♭5(11, no 3rd) [= B♭Δ7♭5 = F#7#5#9 (no root)]
X(7)(8)(7)(10)X

E-7♭5(9, no 3rd) [= F#7#5]
X7877X

There's one problem. Neither of these chords has the minor third degree which is a defining characteristic of E-7♭5. With 4-note chords, you could define a "Two Tension Principle"

The characteristic voicing of a a four-note chord with two tensions is determined.

This means that, as soon as you've added two tensions to a regular 7th chord (in our case, ♭5 and 11 or ♭5 and 9) you are limited to a single characteristic voicing and its inversions. That voicing will consist of the two tensions and the two guide tones, 3rd and 7th. For a regular 7th chord, the un-altered 5th and the root can be sacrificed in order to add tensions like 9, 11, and 13. Once you try to add a third tension, you have to remove one of the guide tones, resulting in a non-characteristic voicing. That's what we did above; we removed the minor third (G), in order to preserve the root note E. If we choose only characteristic voicings, we have to play the G in place of the E, resulting in an E-7♭5 with no E note. That's fine--the guide tones are more important than the root. Here are the only characteristic voicings I've found that will meet all our criteria. In both examples, the first voicing is a drop-2 and the second is a close voicing.

E-7♭5(11) [= G-(9) = B♭Δ13 = E♭Δ7#11 (no root)]
X(10)(8)(7)(10)X or
X(13)(12)(12)(10)X

E-7♭5(9) [= G-Δ7]
X5537X or
X(10)(8)(7)(7)X

D-/?

A coworker inspired this post, and that means that I now have a reader. Let's see if I stay on point. No, I choose now at the outset to go off point all over the place as usual. Look!

D-
X[0]0231

OK, you may have seen this one before. The hyphen should be pronounced as "minor"; this is a standard minor chord that you can find in any book. That zero in the brackets indicates a semi-optional note; it might be fine to let that fifth in the bass ring, depending on the context. It gives a grittier sound and should be called a D-/A.

You may already know the chord; now you have to decide on a fingering. Your choice of fingering should depend on what you want to do with the finger you have left. Using your index, middle, and ring fingers leaves your little finger, and allows for an easy

Dsus4
X[0]0233

but not much else. If you're playing, "What It's Like" by Everlast, then index, middle, ring is the fingering for you. I haven't found many other uses for it. Another option is to use your index, middle, and little fingers, leaving you to do what you like with your ring finger. I've always played D- this way ever since my guitar teacher Greg Norgaard called it the more "professional" way sometime back in 2002. Here are the chords you can play easily with this approach, by merely placing your ring find on the third fret of strings 4, 5, or 6.

D-/F
X[0]3231

This is the first inversion of the original D minor. It's not terribly interesting by itself, but if you take your index finger off and let that open first string ring out, you get this:

D-(add 9)/F = FΔ13 = B♭Δ7#11 (no root)
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And I *love* that chord. OK, placing the ring finger on the 5th string, you get this:

D-7/C
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This is just the third inversion of a D-7 chord. I left out the open 4th string in order to make a clear statement in the bass. I prefer not to have two bass notes ringing at the same time unless they are octaves or fifths, i.e. a power chord. Hammering on that C note from the open 5th string get's you the first beat or so of the unplugged version of "Layla" (I still haven't heard the third version) Finally,

D-/G = G9 (no 3rd) =F6/9 (fourth inversion) = B♭Δ13 (sixth inversion, no root)
3X0231

This is a "modal" dominant 9th voicing, meaning it has a root, ♭7th, and 9th, but no third. It could be played in place of a G-9 or a G9, but not a GΔ9 or G-Δ9, should you have misfortune of seeing G-Δ9 (e.g. X(10)(8)(11)(10)X) on a chart. The F6/9 and B♭Δ13 are more theoretical names for the chord, both being profound violations of the low interval limits on their respective bass notes. In short, you usually don't play a 9th or a 13th in the bass of a chord.

Good luck with "Layla" and "Time in a Bottle"

COTD 18: E11♭9

There are a few voicings that don't have simple tertian descriptions, and are easier to conceive of as "add" chords: just some note added onto a major or minor triad. Here's one:

B-13♭5, E11♭9, or D-(#11)
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Again, not exactly inspiring. However, in the right context it might be just what you need. When I get a moment, I'll play a true E11♭9 in an A minor progression and see how the ♭9 and 11 degrees interplay with the dominant tonality:

E11♭9
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COTD 17: A9

Play "Rocket Man". I don't mean the whole song, just the bar where Sir Elton first sings the words "rocket man." This tab will help. OK, got it? Great. That's an A9 chord, and it contains probably the most important 9th voice in all pop music. The tune just doesn't sound right with just a normal A7. I tend to play standard voicings for the other chords in this song, and then this:

A9
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I think it sounds perfect in this context. The two fretted notes are the guide tones. The open strings, low to high, are the root, ninth, and fifth. This means you can play the other three flavors of ninth chords with minimal effort:

AΔ9
X06600

A-9
X05500

A-Δ9
X06500