Minor Ninth Chords

Let’s look at how to play an A flat minor 9 chord on the piano. We’ll also learn the pattern for building any other minor ninth chord.

What Are Minor Ninth Chords?

Minor ninth chords are minor chords with two added notes. The added notes are the seventh note of the matching major scale, lowered 1/2 step, and the ninth note of the scale.

To build a minor ninth chord, we’ll start by building a minor chord. We can build a minor chord by first building the matching major chord, and then lowering the middle note 1/2 step.

Then we’ll find the seventh note of the matching major scale, lower it 1/2 step, and add it to the chord.

The last note of the chord is the ninth note of the matching major scale. Since scales only have eight notes, to find the ninth, we can repeat the scale into the next octave. The ninth note is the same as the second note of the scale, but one octave up.

Chord Types Printable

Learn to play 17 types of piano chords using 12 different root notes with this 35-page PDF! Chords are sorted both by their root note and type.

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How to Play an A Flat Minor 9 Chord

To build an A flat minor 9 chord, we’ll start by building an A flat minor chord. We can build an A flat minor chord by taking an A flat major chord and lowering the middle note 1/2 step: A♭ – C♭ – E♭

Then we’ll find the seventh note of the A flat major scale, lower it 1/2 step, and add it to the chord: G♭

Then we’ll repeat the A flat major scale into the next octave to find the ninth note: B♭

So to play an A flat minor 9 chord, we’ll play:

A♭ – C♭ – E♭ – G♭ – B♭

Now we can use this knowledge to build any other minor ninth chord! First we’ll build a minor chord by taking the matching major chord and lowering the middle note 1/2 step. Then we’ll find the seventh note of the matching major scale, lower it 1/2 step, and add it to the chord. Then we’ll repeat the scale into the next octave to find the ninth note, and add it to the chord.

Fingering

You probably can’t reach all these notes with your right hand only, so here are some options:

You could play the A♭ with your left hand, and play the C♭ – E♭ – G♭ – B♭ with your right hand using fingers 1 -2 – 3 – 5 (thumbs are 1’s).

Another option would be to play the A♭ with your left hand as before, and then move the B♭ down to the position of a second for the right hand. Then your left hand would play the A♭, and your right hand would play the remaining notes in this order: B♭ – C♭ – E♭ – G♭ using fingers 1 – 2 – 3 – 5.

Other Chord Types

Some of the other chord types you can learn are:

Major
Minor
Augmented
Diminished
Second
Minor Second
Suspended
Fifth
Sixth
Minor Sixth
Seventh
Minor Seventh
Major Seventh
Ninth
Major Ninth

Conclusion

Now you know how to play an A flat minor 9 chord on the piano, and you can use this knowledge to build other minor 9 chords!

Using chords at the piano is lots of fun and gives us lots of options for playing freely and creatively at the piano!