9 and 13 chords for Banjo: Part One
Banjo Chords – 9th Chords
9 and 13 chords can add additional colors in place of your basic 7th chords. These are sometimes referred to as EXTENSIONS.
How do we get to these 9 and 13 chords?
Let’s take a G Major scale:
G A B C D E F#
If you number these notes, you’ll see there are SEVEN notes. However, let’s extend the scale further:
G A B C D E F# G A B C D E F#
I’m simply repeating the scale; however, the second G is a higher octave than the first G (It would have the number 8).
If you count up 9, you get the note “A.” At first, you might say dude, “A” is right there at the beginning; it’s the second note. That’s true. However, when it comes to extensions, the location of the note in relation to the others matters. Using the number 9 will imply two things:
- The chord contains the 7th
- The “A” is above the 7th in pitch (This will make more sense in a bit)
Just understand, a 9 chord is not the same as something you might see written as “Gadd2” “Gsus2” or something similar. In short, a 9 and a 2 are not the same thing.
How do you construct a 9 chord?
Take a 7th chord (1 3 5 b7) and add the 9 to it:
1 3 5 b7 9.
We get five notes. Houston, we have a problem (at least on the banjo). We have five strings; however, we typically don’t use the 5th string to make chords that we can move up and down the neck. So, we can’t play all of these notes most of the time. What do we do?
This is where it is super important to understand the concepts of ESSENTIAL and NON-ESSENTIAL CHORD TONES.
What are the essential Chord Tones?
The 3rd is an essential chord tone because it determines whether a chord is major or minor. Without it, you can’t hear the fundamental essence of the chord.
The b7th is another essential chord tone with these extended chords. Why? This is a bit more complicated; however, if you play just 1-3-5-9, it turns out that 9 functions more like a 2 instead of a 9. You might one day see this written as a Gadd2 chord.
The 7th is required for it to be a 9 chord (You can later try and hear it for yourself). In short, the 7th helps color it as a 9th tone.
What are non-essential Chord Tones?
This may seem a bit crazy at first; however, the root isn’t an essential chord tone. Why? You can assume the bass player or guitar player would be playing the root. Furthermore, your ear has a memory of sorts and even when the root isn’t being played, it still hears things in the context of the key and the function of that chord. In other words, you don’t have to explicitly spell out the root each time.
The most non-essential chord tone is the 5th. Why? The 5th doesn’t determine whether something is major or minor. It also doesn’t determine if we have a 7th chord (You can play a 7th chord with just 1 3 b7.
This idea of essential and non-essential notes makes things quite convenient for us banjo players. All that is required is to catch the 3rd and b7th and then the extended note. We can choose to add other non-essential notes when possible.
Just so you know, even piano players will leave out notes (despite having the ability to play them all). When we start looking at 13 chords, if you play all of the notes, the sound becomes a bit “muddy..” There are so many notes, it affects the clarity of sound. Therefore, even other instrumentalist (piano/harpist) will choose to leave certain notes out.
9 Chords
Now it’s time to take a look at how they look on the banjo.
I present the two fingerings I use the most, one for the top three sets of strings, and one for the middle three strings.
For G9, I am only playing these notes- B, F, and A (3 7 9). No root and no fifth. If you want to play the root you can (catch it by playing the 5th fret of the 4th string).
I show the 9 chords moving down to the normal G7. This might help better accommodate your ear to the sound of the 9 chord if you aren’t already familiar with it.
Fingering #1: Use your pinky on the 1st string, ring on the 2nd, and index on the 3rd string.
Fingering #2: Use your ring on the 2nd string, middle on the 3rd, and index on the 4th string.
Where can you use 9 chords?
I will explain more in a later article; however, for now take my word for it. Use 9 chords in MAJOR keys or going to MAJOR (or 7th) chords afterwards. Using them when headed to a minor chord or in a minor key is a bit more problematic.
Here are the most common scenarios where you can try 9 chords
- I going to a IV chord
- V to I
- II major or II7th headed to a V chord
- Adding to a IV chord for a bluesy type sound
- When the chart says to play a 7th chord, you can try a 9
9 chords aren’t appropriate to all types of music. A few years ago, there was some guy adding them at liberty in church hymns and got some backlash for it, haha. Personally, I’ll put them in songs like “Salty Dog Blues” or “Shucking The Corn”; however, I probably won’t add them to “I Wonder How the Old Folks are at Home” or even “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” You should exhibit some sort of taste and understanding of what’s appropriate for the genre of music you’re playing. Of course, these extended chords are fair game in jazz and classical music. You can also use them in a 12 bar blues (in substitution for your normal 7th chords). Check out “Stormy Monday” for a good blues that uses 9 chords!
Some examples:
If you have a G going to a C major, you can try something like this:
G – G9 – C
V to I’s are pretty much fair game as much as your own tastes allow. In jazz, they will gob up the V chord with all sorts of extensions to create tensions. I find even in bluegrass, 9 chords can work pretty well over the V chord in many songs.
D to G can become D7 to G which can turn into D9 to G.
I like using 9 chords on a II major chord:
G to Amajor to D to G can become G to A9 to D7 to G
Most importantly, understand that a chord chart is a representation of music. It isn’t telling you what you must ALWAYS play, but giving you a general idea of the form, structure, and fundamental sounds. If you’re reading a chord chart and it says something like C7, then you can TRY a C9. I won’t tell you that it always works; however, try it and use your own judgement.
I’ll go over 13 chords in the second article installment, so stay tuned! If you’d like even more details on these types of chords, I recently did a workshop on these chords available to all of my PATREON members
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PART TWO of the article on 13th chords
