Minor Ninth Chords

Let’s look at how to play a D 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.

Then we’ll add the ninth note of the scale to the chord. But since scales only have eight notes, to find the ninth, we’ll 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

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How to Play a D Flat Minor 9 Chord

So to build a D flat minor 9 chord, we’ll start by building a D flat minor chord. We can build a D flat minor chord by taking a D flat major chord (D♭ – F – A♭, the first, third and fifth notes of the D flat major scale), and lowering the middle note 1/2 step: D♭ – F♭ – A♭

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

You may be wondering why we would label the notes “F♭” and “C♭” instead of “E” and “B”. The reason is because when we build this chord, we’re taking the third and seventh notes of the D flat major scale and lowering them 1/2 step. Since the third note of the D flat major scale is “F” and the seventh note is “C”, when we lower these notes 1/2 step, we label them as “F♭” and “C♭”.

Then we’ll repeat the scale into the next octave to find the ninth note and add it to the chord: E♭

So to play a D flat minor 9 chord, we’ll play:

D♭ – F♭ – A♭ – C♭ – E♭

We can use this pattern to build any other minor ninth chord. We’ll first 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

It’s difficult to reach all these notes in this order with one hand, so here are some options:

We can play the D♭ with the left hand and the remaining notes with the right hand, using fingers 1 – 2 – 3 – 5 (thumbs are 1’s) to play the F♭ – A♭ – C♭ – E♭

Or we can rearrange the notes by moving the D♭ up to the next octave, and then play the notes in this order: F♭ – A♭ – C♭ – D♭ – E♭

Other Chord Types

Some of the other chord types we 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 pay a D flat minor 9 chord on the piano, and you can use this knowledge to build any other minor ninth chord!

Using chords at the piano is a wonderful way to enjoy and create music!