Lesson 25 - Ninth, Eleventh, and Thirteenth Chords

You may not be a big Miles Davis fan or even know who Charlie Christian is but knowing jazz chords isn’t just for the jazz cats. In this lesson we will be discussing three types of these so called jazz chords. You might want to review the lesson on seventh is you still don’t quite have the hang of them before moving on to these extended chords.

The first type of chord we want to look at is the ninth. To make a 9th chord we simply add the ninth note of the major scale into our chord. There is no ninth note in the scale you say? OK well this is because a ninth is a second that is an octave up above the second. Sound confusing, well you actually probably already know some ninth chords. Let’s take a look at a C9.  The chords you may have learned earlier as a C2 is actually a C9 because the 2nd is an octave (and a whole step) up from the 1st.  Here are two different ways of playing it. (The second being a movable chord.) Meaning we can move it up the neck to make other 9th’s.

You can also play a min 9th.  Which can or can not included a min. 7th. Here is a Gmin9th in a movable bar shape.

The next type of seventh chord we need to address is simply the eleventh. The 11th is, if you already haven’t figured it out still a major chord with an added 4th that is an octave up. In the example of an Emaj.11 The maj. in the chord lets us know we will be using a major 7th. In this chord we add a D# ( maj. 7th) and a the 11th to the chord. We can also include the 9th and omit the 3rd if we want. It can be played like this.

Finally for those of you feeling really crazy try out a thirteenth chord. If you’re not quite catching on to the pattern a 13th is just a 6th up one octave. We can add this to any chord. Lets try a Am13th. The added F# will give us our 13th.

Now you really need take this lesson and try as many possibilities as you can. Figure as many different chords as you can and try sliding chords up and down the neck naming the chord.