Know Your Chords - 9th Chords (A Shapes)

7th Chords will be the first installment in the "Know your Chords" series. I'm going to approach this the same way you were taught bar chords, E shapes and A Shapes. The E shapes will be referenced at the 5th fret making it an A chord, the A shapes will be referenced at the 7th fret making it an E chord.

This way you can start with memorizing the shape and chord name based on a chord shape you already know. These shapes are also moveable, like a bar chord, so shifting them around will help you play them in other keys. I'm going to show them in E bar shapes and A bar shapes so you can have a few different places on the fretboard to play them.

9th Chords:
Here are the notes that are included to build these chords and their names:

Chord	Name	Chord Structure
E9	9th	1, 3, 5, ♭7, 9
Em9	minor 9th	1, ♭3, 5, ♭7, 9
Emaj9	major 9th	1, 3, 5, 7, 9
Eadd9	add 9	1, 3, 5, 9

Rather than focusing on the theory of the chord, which is included above in the chord structure, I want to focus on learning the shape. This will help you remember it and add it to your chord vocabulary.

I recommend playing through these over and over and memorizing their names when you play them.