COTD 11: D-7♭9

One of my hopes with this blog is to name and popularize cool chords that very few people play. Could this be one?

D-7♭9
X5354X

Now that doesn't sound like much, but the other inversions are interesting. I hope it's more legible when I set off all numbers with parentheses wherever parentheses are needed:

D-7♭9
4th: X(6)(10)(7)(6)X
1st: X(8)(12)(8)(13)X
3rd: X(15)(13)(10)(15)X

I ordered these inversions so they would climb up the neck, not so they would be in order. The inversions are named by which note goes in the bass:

Root in bass: no inversion (or zeroeth inversion, if you like)
Third in bass: first inversion
Fifth in bass: second inversion
Seventh in bass: third inversion
Ninth in bass: fourth inversion
Eleventh in bass: fifth inversion
Thirteenth in bass: sixth inversion

Since this chord has no fifth degree, it doesn't have a second inversion and skips straight to the third and fourth. Alright, enough of that inversion crap.

I promised myself I would lay off the dominant 13ths, but this voicing doubles as a modal F13. Going back two posts, I said the formula for a dominant 13th was 1, 3, 5, ♭7, 9, 11, 13, which we typically abbreviate as 1, 3, ♭7, 13. If we're going for an ambiguous sound, we can swap out the 3rd for a 5th, leaving a chord that is "modal", i.e. neither major nor minor

I'm sorry if you think these sound like crap. I remember geeking out over them when I played them on the uke, so I was excited to see how they sounded on the guitar. The drop-3 versions (which generally lie on strings 2, 3, 4, and 6) might sound better. Someday I'll figure those out and report back.