D7#9 guitar chord

Drop 3 · 9th in bass · ♯9–R–3–♭7 · dropped from root position
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Inversion
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About D7#9 — drop 3 voicings

D7#9 holds the major 3rd and in the same dominant chord: D, F#, A, C and E#. The two notes sound a semitone apart.

The major 3rd stays essential. In blues, 7♯9 can stand on the tonic itself as well as lead to another chord.

Also written D7(#9), D7+9 or D7♯9.

D7#9 drop 3 guitar chord diagram: D, F#, A, C, E#, played x8x778
D7#9 drop 3 guitar chord voicing: x-8-x-7-7-8.

What is drop 3

Drop 3
close
753R
→
dropped
75R3

Drop the third voice from the top an octave instead. The wider gap skips a string, so the muted string is part of the shape.

That result, 3–R–5–7, is the shape usually meant by drop 3. Named by its bass note, as the inversions are here, it is the 1st inversion.

More familiar jazz shapes are drop 3 than drop 2.

E×ADGB

How to use D7#9

1The bluesy tonic

I7 – IV7 – I7 in a blues

D7#9 can replace a plain seventh chord wherever a bluesy sound is wanted, even as the first chord of a tune, where other altered dominants don’t belong. It sounds like home, with no urge to fall a fifth.

Listen for: The sharp nine, a minor third sounding over the major third, holds through the IV7 as its flat seventh.

Other uses

From the books, without a worked example
  • As an altered V
    V in G major

    Like the other altered dominants, D7#9 works in front of a chord a fourth higher, such as Gmaj7, a chord a half step lower, or a minor chord on its own root.

    1. D7#9
    2. Gmaj7

What to play over D7#9

Useful scales

Every scale

Chords near D7#9

Remove a note

Change one note

  • 1st inversion
    9th in bass
    F# → E

    Replace the major third with the ninth.

    See Dm9 chord →
  • 1st inversion
    1st inversion
    A → Bb

    Raise the fifth to the flat thirteenth.

    See Dalt chord →
  • E# → E

    Lower the sharp ninth to the ninth.

    See D9 chord →
  • E# → Eb

    Replace the sharp ninth with the flat ninth.

    See D7b9 chord →

Altered dominant chords on every root

The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.

Midi Settings

7.5
Play Style
One pass of the pick from the lowest string up, everything left ringing.
Instrument
350
150

Style

Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.

Layout

Left Handed Mode