You’ve done it – welcome to Day 7!
Today I teach you one of my favourite chords. This is one of those cool chords that you add to a song to impress your friends. Believe me, it works!
Introducing the 7 flat 9 chord.
This chord is used when you’re about to return to the root chord in a song. For instance, if you’re in the key of G, you frequently play a D chord at the end of a song before finishing on a G chord.
You could play a D7 (think of a G blues song) or a D9 (blues or jazz). Instead of those chords, try the D7b9 instead.
In the video I play the example chord progression Am – D13 – D7b9 – Gmaj7.
Have a listen to what I play so the chord begins to make sense.
It usually works as the 5th note of the scale. So if you’re in the key of G, you’d throw in the D7b9. If you were in A, it’d be two frets up and be an E7b9. In the key of D, it’s an A7b9.
The shape takes a bit of getting used to, but it makes more sense if you think of it as a 9th chord with slightly altered fingering.
This is a great chord and is very useful if you want to make a song a bit more ‘jazzy’. Become an instant jazz hipster with this one chord!
Thank You
Thanks for spending 7 days learning some new chords. I hope you’ve enjoyed the lessons and learned some valuable chord shapes.
The biggest problem I find with lessons like these is that unless you practice them, you don’t remember them. So please, take some time to revise these chords and practice them until you become comfortable with them. Next time you’re playing a song with a minor 7 chord, you’ve now got two new chord shapes to use.
To help you with your learning, I’ve combined all the lessons into a short workbook which you can download and print out. This guide has all seven lessons in it. Keep it with your guitar and refer to it as often as you need to.
Finally, can I ask a favour? If you’ve enjoyed this course, could you send me a message telling me what you’ve found valuable and what you’ve enjoyed about it? I’d like to build up some testimonials I can use on the website to encourage others to subscribe.