Guitar Chord Lesson – Learn to Play Am9

Learn how to play the Am9 Guitar Chord (also known as A minor 9, A Minor 9th) with this free tutorial.  This is an advanced lesson.  If you would like to learn a beginner version of this chord, follow this link for an easy Am9 guitar chord.

In order to find the notes that make up this particular chord, we need to take the 1, b3, 5 , b7, 9  steps of the A Major Scale: A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#.  This will give us the notes A, C, E, G,  and B.  The “b3″ symbol simply means that we take the third position of the A Major Scale (C#) and we flatten it by 1/2 step, giving us our “C”.  Take the same concept with our “b7″ symbol, only we are flattening the 7th step of the A Major Scale (G#), giving us our “G”.  Simple enough right?

So, the notes of the A Minor 9 chord again are: A, C, E, G and B

The chord  chart below demonstrates how to play the Am9 Chord.

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

Everything on the above chart should be self explanatory, except for the last three in the third column. They may need a bit of explaining. The O, or open symbol, simply means that you do not press down on any notes on that string. The X means you do not strum that particular string. The Barre symbol means you need to barre that particular fret. When you barre a fret you are pressing down on multiple strings at the same time with one finger.

Chord Playing Tips: Be sure that you are pressing down on the strings hard enough and play each string one at a time to make sure you have a nice clean sound. If any of the strings buzz or sound muted, then something is not right.

A Minor 9th Guitar Chord Video

The video below will further demonstrate how to play the Am9 Guitar Chord as a barre chord on the 5th fret.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK6YTjZ-TrU

Learn how to Play the A7 Guitar Chord

We covered an easy beginner version of the A7 Guitar Chord on this site in the past.  In this post, we will look at some advanced voicings for the A Dominant 7th chord.

The A7 chord is a very popular one, especially in blues guitar. In order to find the notes that make up this chord, we need to look at the A Major Scale: A B C# D E F# G# A.  From this scale, we find the 1st, 3rd, 5th and flattened 7th positions (b7), or the notes A, C#, E and G.  The “b7″ symbol means that we take the 7th position of the A Major scale (G#) and flatten it by 1/2 step, giving us our  ”G”.  It is this “G” note that gives this chord its distinctive sound.

There are 6 advanced voicings of the A7 guitar chord below for your convenience.

Notes of the A7 Chord are: A, C#, E and G

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

Everything on the above chart should be self explanatory, except for the last three in the third column. They may need a bit of explaining. The O, or open symbol, simply means that you do not press down on any notes on that string. The X means you do not strum that particular string. The Barre symbol means you need to barre that particular fret. When you barre a fret you are pressing down on multiple strings at the same time with one finger.

Chord Playing Tip: Be sure that you are pressing down on the string hard enough. You should play each string one at a time to make sure you have a nice clean sound. If any of the strings buzz or sound muted, then something is not right.

Learn how to Play the Absus4 Guitar Chord

This lesson will demonstrate  how to play the Absus4 guitar chord (also known as A flat suspended 4, A flat suspended 4th).

The formula you will need to use in order to find the notes of this chord is: 1, 4, 5.  This means that we need to look for the 1st, 4th and 5th positions from the Ab Major Scale: Ab – Bb – C – Db – Eb – F – G.  When we do this, we come up with the notes:  Ab, Db and Eb. Simple enough right?

Absus4 Notes: Ab, Db and Eb

This is a difficult chord to get under your fingers if you are a beginner as there are barre chords and muted strings involved.  Barre chords are always a difficult hurdle for beginners to overcome.  It can be extremely frustrating.  Remember that it takes time to build the strength necessary to play barre chords.  So try not to become frustrated if you aren’t able to play them right away.  Check out this post on how to play barre chords for beginners.  It includes a handful of great videos and lots of articles from around the web.

Here is a key that will help you read the charts:

Everything on the above chart should be self explanatory, except for the last three in the third column. They may need a bit of explaining. The O, or open symbol, simply means that you do not press down on any notes on that string. The X means you do not strum that particular string. The Barre symbol means you need to barre that particular fret. When you barre a fret you are pressing down on multiple strings at the same time with one finger.

Chord Playing Tips

Be sure that you are pressing down on the strings hard enough and play each string one at a time to make sure you have a nice clean sound. If any of the strings buzz or sound muted, then something is not right.

Learn How to Play the Csus4 Guitar Chord

This post will teach you several different ways to play the Csus4 chord across the neck of the guitar.  This lesson will cover more advanced versions of this chord. If you would like to learn an easier way to play this chord, follow this link for the beginner Csus4 chord tutorial.

The C Sus4 (also known as C Suspended 4, C Suspended 4th) chord is found in the C Major Scale: C D E F G A B C.  It is made from the 1, 4 and 5 steps of this scale, or the notes C, F and G.

Suspended 4th chords have a unique and beautiful sound to them. The C Suspended 4th chord is essentially a  C Major chord, but we are “Suspending” or replacing the 3rd with a 4th, in other words, we are replacing the “E” with an “F” in this particular case.

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

Everything on the above chart should be self explanatory, except for the last three in the third column. They may need a bit of explaining. The O, or open symbol, simply means that you do not press down on any notes on that string. The X means you do not strum that particular string. The Barre symbol means you need to barre that particular fret. When you barre a fret you are pressing down on multiple strings at the same time with one finger.

Chord Playing Tip: Be sure that you are pressing down on the strings hard enough. You should play each string one at a time to make sure you have a nice clean sound. If any of the strings buzz or sound muted, then something is not right.

Guitar Chord Tutorial – Learn to Play Am7

In the following guitar tutorial, you will be learning how to play several advanced Am7 chord shapes.  For an easy way to play the Am7 guitar chord follow this link.

The A Minor 7 Chord (also known as A Minor 7, A Minor 7th, Amin7) is found in the A Major Scale: A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#.  It is made of the 1, b3, 5 and b7 positions of this scale.

The “b3″ symbol translates to a “Flattened 3rd”.  This just means that we need to flatten the 3rd step (C#) of this scale by 1/2 step giving us our “C”.  The “b7″ symbol translates to “Flattened 7th” , which means we simply lower the 7th step of the A Major Scale (G#) a 1/2 step to a “G”.

Below are three different versions of the Am7 chord.   enjoy.

Notes of the Am7 Chord: A, C, E, G

Here is a key that will help you read the chart:

Everything on the above chart should be self explanatory, except for the last three in the third column. They may need a bit of explaining. The O, or open symbol, simply means that you do not press down on any notes on that string. The X means you do not strum that particular string. The Barre symbol means you need to barre that particular fret. When you barre a fret you are pressing down on multiple strings at the same time with one finger.

Chord Playing Tips: Be sure that you are pressing down on the strings hard enough and play each string one at a time to make sure you have a nice clean sound. If any of the strings buzz or sound muted, then something is not right.