D♭add9

D♭1F3A♭5E♭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 C♯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

x4314x

hard

Fig. 3

9868xx

hard

Fig. 4

xxba9b

hard

Fig. 5

x4364x

hard · no 5

Fig. 6

98b8xx

hard · no 5

What is true of it

D♭add9 is D♭, F, A♭ and E♭ — 1, 3, 5 and 9 counted from D♭.

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

The easiest of the 5 fingerings below is x4314x: 4 fingers, held at the 1st 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 D♭, the root. Everything else is a chord tone with its degree printed in it.

With a different note underneath

first inversion

D♭add9/F

141121

second inversion

D♭add9/A♭

4636xx

third inversion

D♭add9/E♭

x6666x

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.

D♭ in other shapes

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

Cadd9 Dadd9 D♯add9 E♭add9 Eadd9 Fadd9 F♯add9 G♭add9 all 374