G♭add9

G♭1B♭3D♭5A♭9

A major triad with a ninth added and no seventh — which is what tells it apart from a ninth chord.

Written the other way round it is F♯add9 — the same twelve keys on a piano, a different piece of notation.

on ukulele on piano the scale

Every fingering that fits a hand

Fig. 2

xx4324

hard

Fig. 3

2141xx

hard · no 5

Fig. 4

x9869x

hard

Fig. 5

edbdxx

hard

Fig. 6

x98b9x

hard · no 5

What is true of it

G♭add9 is G♭, B♭, D♭ and A♭ — 1, 3, 5 and 9 counted from G♭.

On an instrument that cannot reach all 4, the 5 goes first, in that order.

The easiest of the 5 fingerings below is xx4324: 4 fingers, held at the 2nd fret.

None of them uses an open string, so this chord moves up the neck unchanged — the same shape 1 fret higher is the chord a semitone above.

2 strings stay silent.

Where its notes are on the neck

Fig. 7 — first 12 frets

The brass dots are G♭, the root. Everything else is a chord tone with its degree printed in it.

With a different note underneath

first inversion

G♭add9/B♭

696676

second inversion

G♭add9/D♭

9b8bxx

third inversion

G♭add9/A♭

xbbbbx

An inversion is the same chord with a different note lowest. The name changes to a slash name because the bass is what a listener hears as the foundation.

G♭ in other shapes

G♭9dominant ninth G♭maj9major ninth G♭m9minor ninth G♭major G♭mminor G♭dimdiminished

Cadd9 C♯add9 D♭add9 Dadd9 D♯add9 E♭add9 Eadd9 Fadd9 all 374