E Dominant 9th
9
0 - 4 - 7 - 10 - 14Dom7 + major 9th
About E Dominant 9th
E9 is the funk chord in its home key. Root on the low E, ninth on top, and a shape that sits at the sixth fret where the neck is comfortable — this is the grip behind a great deal of rhythm playing that has nothing to do with folk or rock.
The notes
E, G♯, B, D, F♯. The D is the flat seventh and the F♯ the ninth. As with every ninth chord, the fifth is usually dropped: four notes carry the sound, and the fifth adds nothing but a stretch.
Against a plain E7 the difference is one note and a whole idiom. E7 belongs to blues and rock; E9 belongs to soul, and the distance between them is the added F♯.
The shape
Root on the A string at the seventh fret, index acting as a partial barre across the middle strings. The same grip moved down two frets gives D9, up one gives F9 — the shape is the point, not the position.
Played with the strumming hand damping between beats, it produces the percussive sixteenth-note figure that defines funk rhythm guitar.
Where it shows up
As the tonic of a funk vamp in E, and as the V of A major in blues and soul. In the first role it never resolves; in the second it does, but slowly.
It also appears at the end of a blues turnaround, where the ninth adds gloss to a chord that would otherwise sound plain after twelve bars of the same material.
The chord is also a useful test of picking-hand control: it sounds dull strummed openly and comes alive only when the strings are damped between beats, which is why funk players practise it as a rhythm exercise rather than a chord.