6/9 Chords aka 6add9 | Guitar Diagrams and Voicing Charts

What's a 6/9 Chord?

A 6/9 chord, also known as a "six-nine" chord, is a musical chord that includes the following notes: the root, third, fifth, sixth, and ninth. In terms of intervals, this chord consists of a major triad (root, major third, and perfect fifth) with the added sixth and ninth.

• root (1),
• major third (3) 
• perfect fifth (5) 
• sixth (6)  
• ninth (9)

6/9 voicings are very cool because they have a somewhat more interesting, ambiguous and rich sound. They are great for substituting major chords.

This type of chord also can embody a fourth-stack. For example, with C6/9, we got C in the bass and three notes stacked in fourth from the third of C (EAD) giving a C6/9 chord.

Chord Symbols and Notation

6/9 chords can be written 6-9, 69, ^6/9 or 6add9.

Differences Between maj6, maj13, maj9 and 6/9 Chords

Some type of chords can be confusing. Here is a summary chart :

• maj6 chords are built with 1 3 5 6
• maj13 chords are built with 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 
• maj7add13 are built with 1 3 5 7 13
• maj9 are built with 1 3 5 7 9
• 6/9 chords are built with 1 3 5 6 9

How to Play 6/9 Chords on Guitar?

Here are six guitar diagrams to play 6/9 chords. The first two shapes have roots on the 6th string. The next two shapes have roots on the fifth string and the last two ones have roots on the fourth string.

Comparison With m11 Chords

As you can see that 6/9 chords are built with a root (R) and four notes stacked in fourths (3,6,9 and 5). Starting from the major third of a 6/9 chord, you get a m11 chord. This chart below shows the relationship between C ^6/9 and Em11. 

How to Use 6/9 Chords?

Here are two 69 chord applications. In this first II-V-I in C major, we will use three chords.

• Dm11 with no root (rootless).
• G13 with no root.
• C⁶⁹ with no root. If you have read right the previous explanations, this chord can be considered as Em11. 

So the original progression which was Dm7 | G7 | Cmaj7 has become Dm11 | G13 | C⁶⁹

In this example, G7 is replaced by G6. Then two chords, C6/9 and Cmaj6 are played instead of Cmaj7.

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