How do I play this C9 chord?

[Airlane1979]

I'm trying to play a C Dominant 9th chord in the lowest position as in the attached image. It seems impossible to finger correctly. There's no way I can get my second finger to bend onto the fifth (A) string while my third finger is holding down the 1st, 2nd and 3rd strings. How is it done?

[Dad3353]

Maybe I cheat, I dunno, but I use my thumb for the 'A' string (and the low 'E', of course...), The index for the 'D' string and barre the top three with my ring finger (although I don't have rings; it's just called that, s'all...).

The 'real' way to play it is shown here ...

Dominant 9th ...

Hope this helps. 

Edited June 3, 2020 by Dad3353

[ezbass]

Miss off the high G and finger the D with your pinky, you'll still get the full 9th 'flavour'. Then you can slide the pinky up a semi-tone for a full on, Hendrix #9; Foxy!

[Dad3353]

+1 ^^ now you come to mention it. Well spotted. 

[Mikeod]

Hi .

If you make sure to get a high Arch with the second finger and the turn the the third finger at almost a 45% angle it would work, takes a lot of practice, but less strenuous in the end, hope this helps

Mike

[EliasMooseblaster]

On 03/06/2020 at 16:53, ezbass said:

Miss off the high G and finger the D with your pinky, you'll still get the full 9th 'flavour'. Then you can slide the pinky up a semi-tone for a full on, Hendrix #9; Foxy!

^ I'll second this. I never bother playing the high fifth with this shape. The lowest four strings give you root, major third, dominant 7th and ninth, which is all you really need to give that chord its character. Hell, if you're playing in a group, I'd even leave out the root - let the bass take care of that and free up a little space in the mix!

[leftybassman392]

On 03/06/2020 at 16:53, ezbass said:

Miss off the high G and finger the D with your pinky, you'll still get the full 9th 'flavour'. Then you can slide the pinky up a semi-tone for a full on, Hendrix #9; Foxy!

^^^I'll third it. If the high G is important to the voicing of the chord (if you're not sure what that means, don't worry about it ), you can try flattening your pinky onto the first string.

Longer term, it is worth persevering with the fingering as shown. It might take a while to get it, but your technique will be the better for it. This chord shape (in either version) is the basis for numerous variations with subtly different sounds, and you can slide it up & down the fretboard to get the same variations on other chords (e.g. if you slide the whole shape up two frets you get D9 and its variations). 9ths and their variations are very popular with jazzers (amongst others of course ).

Edited September 11, 2020 by leftybassman392

[Creativemind]

I play it like a Cadd9 chord but press the 4th finger down (the one next to the pinky) to make sure all 3 of the bottom strings are pressed on the 3rd fret.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Creativemind

[leftybassman392]

Thinking about this a bit more, for a lighter sound you could actually lose the low C (especially if you have a bass player to play it for you, and most especially if you're playing Jazz).