Bb add9 Guitar Chord

Today's guitar chord of the day is Bb add9. We've looked at a few different ways to play different add9 guitar chords here. Add9 chords can be played anywhere you would normally play a standard major chord, the add ed9th (in our case here of Bb this would be a C) adds some colour to the major chord.

This inversion uses a barre across the guitar's D, G and B strings with your first finger.

Place your fingers close to the frets and make sure that each note sounds cleanly.

This inversion is moveable and has it's root on the bottom E string of the guitar. For example moving the chord down one fret would create an A add9 chord and moving up two frets would create a C add9 guitar chord.

Bb add9 uses these notes Bb, D, F, C

If we look at the notes of the Bb major scale:
Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A, Bb, C
We can see that the Add9 chord has used the 1, 3, 5, 9 from the scale, in our case Bb, D, F and C

This chord is used in lots of songs in the key of Bb, F and Eb.

You'll find lots more ways to play different add9 guitar chords here.

Using Harmonics To Play Guitar Chords | G Major

In a previous Guitar Chord a Day post we introduced the idea of playing guitar chords with harmonics.

Today's guitar chord is a simple G major triad. This can be played in two positions using harmonics, firstly play this chord with harmonics by lightly resting your finger touching the strings over the 12th fret, once you've plucked them you can remove your left hand to let them ring.
The 12th fret is exactly half way between the bridge and nut of your guitar. Harmonics played here are the same pitch as the fretted note, so harmonics at the 12th fret will have the same pitch as fretting a note at the 12th fret.

We can also play a G major triad using harmonics at the 5th fret.

Guitar harmonics have a beautiful chime like sound and are a simple way to add some tonal variation to common chords.

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Blues Guitar Chords: Chord Scale

Today's guitar chord of the day post takes a different turn and includes eight guitar chords! We've looked at some of these chord inversions but this post puts them in a new context.

All of the chords presented are inversions or extensions of C7, so can be played in place of C7 in a blues progression. The interesting thing about this progression is that the top note of the series of chords plays through a C Mixolydian Scale.

The first is a C7 chord with a C root note on top

The second chord is a C9 chord with the 9th, D on top.

The third chord is a C7 chord with the 3rd, E on top.

The fourth chord is a C11 chord with the 11th, F on top.

The fifth chord is a C9 chord with the 5th, G on top.

The sixth chord is a C13 chord with the 13th, A on top.

The seventh chord is a C7 chord with the 7th, Bb on top.

The final chord is a C7 chord with the root note, C on top.

As we can play any one of these chords in place of a regular C7 we can play melodies with our rhythm parts - this sounds much more interesting than playing just one inversion for an extended period of time. Try linking these together and making up your own combinations of these chords and tune in tomorrow for another guitar chord of the day.

Blues Guitar Chords: E9

Today's guitar chord of the day, continues our series of Blues Guitar Chords: E9.
This chord is moveable and has its root note on the E string (indicated by the black box in the chord diagram). Here's the fingering for this guitar chord shape:

Blues typically follows a 12 bar pattern based around Dominant 7th Chords:

||: E7  |  A7  |  E7  |  E7  |  A7  |  A7  |  E7  |  E7  |  B7  |  A7  |  E7  |  B7  :||

9th Chords use these degrees of the major scale: 1, 3, 5, b7
E9 uses these notes: E, G#, B, D 
Mix up today's chord of the day with previous Blues guitar chords when you play through the 12 bar progression and tune in tomorrow for another guitar chord of the day.

Blues Guitar Chords: D13

Today's guitar chord of the day, continues our series of Blues Guitar Chords: D13.

13th chords and it can be played in place of most 7th chords (also known as dominant chords, or dominant 7th chords).
This chord is moveable and has its root note on the B string (indicated by the black box in the chord diagram). This chord is fingered by playing the root note on the B string with your middle finger, your first finger on the A string, your 3rd finger on the D string and little finger on the G string.

Blues typically follows a 12 bar pattern based around Dominant 7th Chords:

||: A7  |  D7  |  A7  |  A7  |  D7  |  D7  |  A7  |  A7  |  E7  |  D7  |  A7  |  E7  :||

Mix up today's chord of the day with previous Blues guitar chords when you play through the 12 bar progression and tune in tomorrow for another guitar chord of the day.

Blues Guitar Chords: D9

Today's D9 guitar chord of the day is another inversion of a 9th chord and continues our series of blues guitar chords.

The root note is on the A string, it's easy to slip this up two frets to play an E9 chord. Use this with yesterday's A9 Guitar Chord and play through the entire blues chord progression.

D9 uses these notes: D F# A C

Tune in tomorrow for another guitar chord of the day.

Blues Guitar Chords: A9

Following on with our series of Blues Guitar Chords, today's Guitar Chord of the Day is A9.

Blues typically follows a 12 bar pattern based around Dominant 7th Chords:

||: A7  |  D7  |  A7  |  A7  |  D7  |  D7  |  A7  |  A7  |  E7  |  D7  |  A7  |  E7  :||

We've look at many different ways of playing dominant 7th chords on the guitar before, but we can make the blues progressions more interesting to play and listen to by using extended chords.

9th chords use these degrees of the major scale: 1, 3, 5, b7, 9
A9 uses the notes: A, C#, E, G, B
The root note of the chord isn't played in this inversion, but we can imagine a root note on the E string to help us locate where to play the chord.

Try playing through the above blues chord progression with 9th chords and tune in tomorrow for another guitar chord of the day.

Blues Guitar Chords.. the easy way!

Today kicks off a new series of Blues Guitar Chords.


Blues progressions typically follows a 12 bar pattern based around three Dominant 7th Chords:


||: A7  |  D7  |  A7  |  A7  |  D7  |  D7  |  A7  |  A7  |  E7  |  D7  |  A7  |  E7  :||


There are lots of variations of this basic progression, but they all tend to be elaborations of the basic 3 chord 12 bar above.


We've look at many different ways of playing dominant 7th chords on the guitar before, but today we'll look at playing through a blues progression with the least possible effort

7th chords use these degrees of the major scale: 1, 3, 5, b7
A7 uses the notes: A, C#, E, G

If you're playing with a band you can be sure that the bass player will be playing the root note. The most important notes of the chord are the 3rd and 7th, in A that's C# and G. So today's guitar chord will just play these two essential notes of the chord:
As you can see, this is the easiest way to play through a blues chord progression, only two fingers needed!

The great thing about this is when you play through the blue chord progression, you don't have to jump up to the 10th fret to play your D7 chord, keep the fingering exactly the same and move down one fret:

D7: D, F#, A, C

To play the E7 chord, keep the fingering exactly the same and move up one fret:

 E7: E, G#, B, D
We can now play through the whole 12 bar blues progression with one shape and moving only one fret in either direction.As well as being easy to play this demonstrate an important idea when linking chords together: voice leading, that is making sure that chords flow by having each note move a small distance to the next.

We'll be building up from our basic Blues Guitar Chord progression day by day, so tune up and tune in tomorrow for another Guitar Chord Of The Day

D6 guitar chord

Today's Guitar Chord of the Day is D6. 6th chords can be played in place of any major chord, though they're often played as the last guitar chord in a song.
This D6 guitar chord is a fairly common inversion, you can play through some more 6th guitar chords here.

Major 6 chords use the scale degrees: 1, 3, 5, 6
D6 uses the notes: D, F# A, B
Major 6 chords can be played in place of almost all major chords and as chords I, IV and V in major keys.

Major 6th chords can also be considered as relative minor 7th chords, D6 and Bm7 have the same notes in so you can play this inversion in place of either of these two chords.

Tune in tomorrow for another Guitar Chord Of The Day

D13 Guitar Chord

Today's Guitar Chord of the Day is D13. 13th chords together with 9th chords are really great for playing through blues progressions. Try playing through a regular blues progression using these Blues Guitar Chords in place of regular 7th chords.
Here's the fingering for this chord shape:

You can find more inversions here:

• 13th Guitar Chords
• 9th Guitar Chords

D13 uses the notes: D, F#, A, C, E, G, B
Our inversion uses the notes in this order: D, F#, C, E, B

Tune in tomorrow for another Guitar Chord Of The Day

C7#9 Guitar Chord

Today's Guitar Chord of the Day is C7#9. 7#9 chord's are commonly known by guitarist's as 'The Hendrix Chord', though jazzer's prefer to call them altered chords. We've featured a few other Hendrix chords and altered jazz guitar chords in previous posts.
This guitar chord is fairly simple to play but is less well known than the regular Hendrix chord inversion. This inversion has its root on the top E string of the guitar.

7#9 chords use these degrees of the major scale: 1, 3, 5, b7, #9
C7#9 uses the notes: C, E, G,Bb, D#
Our inversion uses the notes in this order: E, Bb, Eb, C

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