A9 Guitar Chord Lesson

Learn how to play the A9 Guitar Chord (also known as A Dominant 9, A Dominant 9th, Dominant A 9th) with this free guitar tutorial.

To build this chord, we will need to locate the 1, 3, 5, b7 and 9 positions of the A Major Scale: A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G# , or the notes A, C#, E, G,  and B.  The “b7” symbol means that we take the 7th position of the A Major Scale and flatten it by 1/2 step to arrive at our “G” note.

The notes of the A 9 chord are: A, C#, E, G,  and B

The chord  charts below demonstrate how to play the A9 Chord.

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

Everything on the above chart should be self explanatory, except for the last three in the third column. They may need a bit of explaining. The O, or open symbol, simply means that you do not press down on any notes on that string. The X means you do not strum that particular string. The Barre symbol means you need to barre that particular fret. When you barre a fret you are pressing down on multiple strings at the same time with one finger.

Chord Playing Tips: This is definitely a challenging chord.  There is muting of strings and barre chords involved here.  Make sure that you are pressing down on the strings hard enough.  Play each string one at a time.  It should produce a nice clean sound.