Explaining D6 add 9

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Your guitar is in standard tuning.

Place your fingers on the second frets of the bottom E string and the G string.  Strum all six strings.  You have a D6add9 chord.

The bottom four strings produce a D major chord.  The open B string provides the sixth note in a D major chord, making it a D6 chord.

I wondered why it is not called a D6add2, because the open E string provides the second note in the major scale.  But of course the ninth note is also the second note, just an octave higher.

The E in the D6add9 comes from the top E string.  It is the highest pitched note in the chord, and presumably that is why it is called D6add9 rather than D6add2.

Am I right?
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Comments

  • Alnmouth said:
    The open B string provides the sixth note in a D major chord, making it a D6 chord.

    That should say D major scale.
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  • vizviz Frets: 10643
    Yes, it’s above where the 7th would have been.  
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • The naming of Chords is in part down to musical convention. If you didn't play the F♯on the bottom E string, then you could argue that the Chord is D6sus2, because you would then have no 3rd in the Chord.
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  • vizviz Frets: 10643
    edited October 2018
    The naming of Chords is in part down to musical convention. If you didn't play the F♯on the bottom E string, then you could argue that the Chord is D6sus2, because you would then have no 3rd in the Chord.
    I’m not good at chord naming but I think that’d still be a D6sus9. Not that it matters. 

    Edit - I think you’re right :) 
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • VeganicVeganic Frets: 673
    F#m7#5sus4? :)
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  • PhiltrePhiltre Frets: 4164
    Veganic said:
    F#m7#5sus4? :)
    Yes, that's about right.

    F# - Root
    A - Minor 3rd
    D - #5
    A - Minor 3rd
    B - sus4
    E - Minor 7th

    Madness, though!

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  • VeganicVeganic Frets: 673
    Ok. A6sus2/4? 
    It must be A because there are 2 of them!

    What are inversions called after the 3rd? 

    Sorry, I am not helping :(
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  • MegiiMegii Frets: 1670
    I'd just call that plain D6/9 - it's a fairly standard naming convention. :)
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  • BarneyBarney Frets: 614
    Iff I'm looking at it correctly naming it D6sus2 you will not have the Maj 3rd in ...but in this case you have so it would be D6 add9
    That's iff I am looking at it correctly :)
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  • vizviz Frets: 10643
    Veganic said:

    What are inversions called after the 3rd? 

    Sorry, I am not helping :(
    There aren’t any - the 3rd inversion starts on the 7th note :)
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • But if the 6 ... turned out to be 9 ... I don't mind, I don't mind ...
    Trading feedback | FS: Nothing right now
    JM build | Pedalboard plans
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  • ClarkyClarky Frets: 3261
    Philtre said:
    Veganic said:
    F#m7#5sus4? :)
    Yes, that's about right.

    F# - Root
    A - Minor 3rd
    D - #5
    A - Minor 3rd
    B - sus4
    E - Minor 7th

    Madness, though!

    not sure you can have a 3rd and sus4 in the same chord..
    cos it don't really make sense
    if a chord has a 3rd and 4th, I'd consider that 4th to be an 11th because nothing is suspended
    play every note as if it were your first
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  • ClarkyClarky Frets: 3261
    edited October 2018
    soloing over it, this chord sounds to me like it's in the key of A

    at first glance it looks to me like A sus4 add9/13 in 2nd inversion
    low to high
    E - 5th [placing the A chord in 2nd inv]
    A - Root
    D - sus4
    A - Root
    B - add9
    F# - add13

    if you follow this chord with an A chord using the 'G' shape fingering, you'll see the note D resolve to the C# [on the A string]
    all that tension generated by all that dissonance releases..
    it's that 'sigh of relief' that happens when the sun chord is followed be a triad
    I think it really sounds rather nice

    I noticed that when following this chord with an A triad does give a kind of V -> I feeling too..
    partly because of the move in the bass from E to A, and partly because it contains bits of an E sus4 7

    if we considered it to be V in A we get E sus4 7 add9
    E - Root
    A - Sus4
    D - Minor 7th [making this a dominant 7 chord]
    A - Sus4 [having the sus4 occur twice in a chord is a bit iffy.. there'd be marks deducted.. lol]
    B - 5th
    F# - add9

    follow this chord with an E7 and then follow that with an A, this chord really starts making sense

    my vote is for E sus4 7 add9 in A
    play every note as if it were your first
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  • HAL9000HAL9000 Frets: 9550
    I was always told that a 9 chord contains the 2nd and the 7th, whereas a 2 chord doesn’t have the 7th. If that’s right then it’s a D6 add 2. 
    I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
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  • HAL9000 said:
    I was always told that a 9 chord contains the 2nd and the 7th, whereas a 2 chord doesn’t have the 7th. If that’s right then it’s a D6 add 2. 
    It's not a D6add2 because of  conventions in music theory in describing chords. As there is a Third in the OP's chord, then the E note is described as a 9th. If there was no Third, then you could call it a Sus2 chord. You do not need a 7th in the chord for the note to be a 9th. You would need a 7th for the chord to be simply described as Dmaj9, or D9, or Dmin9, otherwise the term add9 gets used.
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