Chord Of The Week 22/3/14 - Moveable add9 chords

bigjon

Think Purple Rain Bbadd9 x13531. I love the sound of them, but they can be quite awkward to play in closed positions because they contain the first three notes of the major scale = a pair of 2nd intervals, which is difficult to arrange across strings tuned in 4ths.

Formula is 1 3 5 9 so a Cadd9 would be C E G D.

Here are the 5 CAGED shapes with add9 chords constructed around them:

C shape - Dbadd9: x43141

A shape - Bbadd9: x13531

G shape - Abadd9: 4x1314

E shape - Fadd9: 135211

D shape - Ebadd9: xx1363 (not really playable - in practice I'd play a C-shape x65363 instead)

What moveable add9 chords can you come up with?

bigjon

Chord Of The Week Index updated at http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/598/chord-of-the-week-index

mellowsun

I like my add9 chords to involve open strings where possible, so I prefer this Bbadd9 (which I think sounds closer to what Prince plays in Purple Rain, but I could be wrong):

x 1 0 3 1 1

With this shape you can do some nice comping by moving the bass around:

x 3 0 3 1 1  (C7sus4add9)

3 x 0 3 1 1 (Gm11)

1 x 0 3 1 1 (Bbadd9/F)

x 0 3 0 1 1 (Am7#5)