Dominant seventh sharp ninth chord
chord built by combining a dominant seventh with an augmented second as the minor third degree above the root
In music, the dominant 7♯9 chord ("dominant seven sharp nine" or "dominant seven sharp ninth") is a chord built by combining a dominant seventh, which includes a major third above the root, with an augmented second, which is the same pitch as the minor third degree above the root, with a different name. For example, a G dominant dominant 7♯9 chord (G7♯9) consists of the notes G–B–D–F–A♯.
This chord is used in many forms of contemporary popular music, including jazz, funk, R&B, rock and pop. As a dominant chord in diatonic harmony, it most commonly functions as a turnaround chord, returning to the tonic.
The chord is also sometimes colloquially known, among pop and rock guitarists, as the "Hendrix chord" or "Purple Haze chord", nicknamed for guitarist Jimi Hendrix, who showed a preference for the chord and did a great deal to popularize its use in mainstream rock music. When used by The Beatles it has been called the "Gretty chord" although this can refer to a distinct six-string version.
Spelling and notation
There are two main ways to spell the chord, depending on the musical style, kind of musical notation (score or chord symbols), and personal taste. One consists of a dominant seventh chord with an added minor third placed one or more octaves over the major third (a minor tenth); the other, more common, consists of a dominant seventh chord with an added augmented ninth. The former can be written in popular chord symbol notation systems as 7♭10 and the latter as 7♯9. Writing it as 7♭10 is unorthodox but is done in some contexts.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dominant seventh sharp ninth chord” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.