Dominant Thirteenth Flat Ninth Chord

< Back

Last updated on: 2009-08-19 2:11 PM

You currently have JavaScript disabled on your browser, or your browser does not support it. You will not be able to access some important Ricmedia website features without JavaScript support. How do I enable JavaScript in my browser?

A dominant thirteenth flat ninth chord is composed using a root/1^st, major 3^rd, perfect 5^th, minor 7^th, minor 9^th and major 13^th (or R/1-3-5-7-9-13) intervals played simultaneously. Generally written as C¹³⁽⁹⁾ or Cdom¹³⁽⁹⁾, it is good practice to simply use an uppercase C followed by a superscripted ¹³⁽⁹⁾ to represent it in writing (ie: C¹³⁽⁹⁾).

Major, Minor & Dominant Thirteenth Chords

Generally we omit the perfect eleventh from major and dominant thirteenth chord voicings as we are limited to six notes on a six string guitar, and a fully voiced thirteenth chord contains seven. The only intervals required for a thirteenth chord are the root/1^st, 3^rd, 7^th and 13^th degrees, so we can leave out the 5^th, 9^th and 11^th. If the eleventh is important to your chord voicing, we generally sharpen it for major and dominant thirteenth voicings, for minor we can leave it as a natural eleventh as the major third is now a minor third and does not clash with the perfect eleventh however, most minor thirteenth chord voicings still omit the eleventh. You may also leave the eleventh as a natural for major and dominant, depending on the voicing it can have a pleasing sound, but when gigging it is generally expected that you either leave the eleventh out all together, or sharpen it.

Dominant Thirteenth Flat Ninth Chord Profile

Intervals	root/1^st, major 3^rd, perfect 5^th, minor 7^th, minor 9^th, major 13^th or R/1-3-5-7-9-13)
Stability	Dissonant / Unresolved
Grouping Class	Hexad
Common Names (examples in C)	C¹³⁽⁹⁾, Cdom¹³⁽⁹⁾

Dominant Thirteenth Flat Ninth Chord Voicings

The chord voicings below are not shown in any particular key, they are shapes which can be moved around the guitar neck freely using the root note (circled dot) as your navigator. See example below.

How to use
As an example, let's say you require a D major chord
After playing all the chord voicings, you decide on voicing #2
Voicing #2 has it's root on the 5^th string so you need to find the D note on this string
Click the notes on the neck chart tab and find the D note on the 5^th fret (5^th string)
Now play D major using voicing #2 on the 5^th fret
Use the Octave chart tab to help you remember which notes are where
Use the Chord chart help tab if your a beginner at reading chord boxes

Dominant thirteenth flat ninth chord voicings

Notes on the guitar neck chart (lite version)

Using octaves to learn notes on the guitar neck

First determine which chord you require, let's use a B major chord in this example.
We know the root note is B, (if it were an A major chord the root note would be A and for Cma⁷ it would be C, etc etc)
Using the notes on the guitar neck chart, find the B note on the 6^th string, 7^th fret.
Now using the major chord voicings chart, look for voicing #4 which has it's root note on the 6^th string and play it, your done!
Remember, learning and memorizing notes, chord voicings and scales in this way will improve your playing skills, theoretical knowledge and desirability as a band member.

Dominant Thirteenth Flat Ninth Chord Audio Sample(s)

To download audio sample(s) for later listening, right click on the MP3 link, then from the context menu that appears select Save Target As (Internet Explorer) or Save Link As (Firefox).

Audio Sample Name	Flash	MP3
C Dominant Thirteenth Flat Ninth Chord voicing #3		c-dominant-thirteenth-flat-ninth-chord-voicing-3.mp3

Related Lessons & Resources

Guitar Lessons
- How to read chord diagrams
Music Theory
- Altered scale
- Harmonizing a major scale (triads)

External Resources

Thirteenth chord at Wikipedia.org