Oct 27, 20202 min read

(27) 9th Chord Arpeggio

Updated: Mar 19, 2021

What is a 9th Chord Arpeggio? First an arpeggiated chord usually means a chord constructed of every other note beginning with the first note of the scale. The term 9th chord means the chord is a chord constructed of five notes; the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th. There are only 8 notes in a scale from the first note though the beginning note repeated an octave higher. The 9th note is the note 1 interval higher than the last of the scale. So the 9th Chord arpeggio based on the C major scale would be:

C E G B D. The recommended way to practice this chord in the Ross Walter's course is:

1. Arpeggio up, complete scale down

2. Complete scale up, Arpeggio down

Master this sequence for the C, D, F, and G arpeggio based on the major, Dominant, and Dorian modes. I decided the only way I could keep all that in my head was not to depend totally on playing by ear but to actually know the notes in each mode for every scale. To this end, I set about constructing all the practice scales first in a spreadsheet and then re-creating them in Musescore as musical notation.

Spreadsheet Representation for Major Scale

Musecore Representation for Major Scale

I recommend you construct both of these from scratch. Here is a video of me explaining how:

Finally, here is me playing the arpeggio practice for all 4 major scales. My next post will include the practice for the Dominant and Dorian scales