The Flat 9 Chord – What Is It?

Good morning, this is Duane. We’ve been doing a series on Good Stuff You Really Ought To Know About Music, and it has to do with music theory. Today we’re going to take up the flat 9th chord.  It’s not used a lot except by more advanced pianists, but it should be, because it’s really easy to form, and it’s a good tightener. In other words, it tightens the chord and it really wants to move onto the next chord.

Let me just play, I’ll play a “C” 7th chord. If I put in a 9th, that would be a D, right? A Flat 9th is just what is says, you lower the 9th a half step. If “C” 7th is a pregnant chord, and it is, it wants to move around the circle of 5ths usually to the next chord, which is F. Then a flat 9th is really a tightener, it really wants to move. Let’s say I’m playing on “C”, and I’m going to “F”, that’s a Flat 9th. Here’s a “G” 7th, if I flat the 9th, see how that tightens it.

If I was playing Misty, that’s the “G” 7th chord, but I’m putting in a 9th. If I don’t put in the 9th, it sounds like that, I mean the Flat 9th, it sounds like that. If I put in the Flat 9th, you see how much that, I call it a tightener, because it in my mind tightens the chords and wants it to move on to the next resolution. In other words, this creates a lot of tension, doesn’t it? Then that’s relaxation. Music is really a basic, is a matter of going between tension and relaxation. You have a period of relaxing sounds, consonant sounds, then you get them dissonant sounds, and that creates tension.

Music would be very boring if there was no tension at all, and so the Flat 9th chord is a chord that you can create tension with. The principle is, by the way a 9th, a dominant 9th always includes a 7th. I’m not talking about a Major 9th, I’m talking about regular 9th. If you flatten the 9th, that creates that sound. I like to even combine it with the 6th of the chord, so it sounds like that. That’s like the “A” chord over “C” 7th, isn’t it? It’s a third of the chord, the Flat 9th and the 6th. That creates a lot of tension, and then relaxes right there.

That’s the Flat 9th chord. Thanks for being with me. If you enjoy these kind of tips, come on over to Play Piano, and sign up for our free series of tips. I hope to see you there, bye-bye for now.

***For lots more good stuff on piano playing come on over to my website at https://www.playpiano.com and sign up for our free piano tips – “Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions!”

Here’s a great little book on chords and chord progressions on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Chords-Chord-Progressions-Exciting-ebook/dp/B0076OUGDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404158669&sr=1-1&keywords=piano+chords+duane+shinn

Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHoBXeS7xo4&feature=youtu.be

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