Extended Chords and Connecting the Shapes: C9

by Sidney Schwartz

First let's take a look at a C fretboard. It takes all the possible 1, 3 and 5 notes of a C chord and arranges
them into and around the three PT shapes: E, A and D.

* The blue, green and orange notes represent a C major triad played using the D, A and E shapes,
respectively. (The "extra" 3 note on the 6th string in the blue D shape is a reminder that the 1st and 6th
strings are the same note; it would not normally be included when diagramming the PT shapes.) These
should look very familiar to you by now.
* The red shape is what I consider a second E shape, which we can call E2. (As with the "extra" 3 note
on the D shape, the "extra" 5 note on the 1st string of the E2 shape is a reminder that the 1st and 6th
strings are the same note.) The 1 note and two 5 notes in the red E2 shape are the notes that are barred
when barring the green A shape.
* The yellow notes represent an E shape that is split and "hangs off" both edges of the fretboard. The 5
note and two 1 notes of the yellow shape are the notes that are barred when barring the orange E shape.
So basically we have the foundational E, A and D shapes pluse the two bars used for the E and A barred
shapes. Very basic stuff.
Now let's look at the first variation of a C9 chord from Kirk's lessons:

At first glance it doesn't seem to have much to do with the PT shapes, or at least it didn't to me. Let's
break it down using the shapes from the above C fretboard. Darker shades of a color mean those notes
are fingered, while the lighter shaded notes are not. 1, 3 and 5 notes always belong to their respective
shapes (duh). For notes other than the 1, 3 and 5, there are no set rules that I know of, so I just came up
with some up that make sense to me:
* A 2 note is associated with a 1 note (down two frets)
* A 4 note is associated with a 3 note (up one fret)
* A 6 note is associated with a 5 note (up two frets)
* A 7 note is associated with a 1 note (down two frets)
My goal was to simply to keep the 2, 4, 6 and 7 notes associated with the shapes to which they are
closest. (In the case of the 2 note, we can see here that it is equidistant from the 1 of the blue D shape
and the 3 of the green A shape. I chose to associate with the 1 of the D shape because the 1 is a root
note.) In this way, a 2, 4, 6 or 7 note is never more than two frets away from a "boss" note, the 1, 3, and
5.

Starting from the 1 (top) string, we can deconstruct this C9 as follows:

1 - The 5 note is taken from the red E2 shape.
2 - The 2 note is taken from the blue D shape.
3 - The 7 note is taken from the green A shape
4 - The 3 note is taken from the red E2 shape.
5 - The 1 note is taken from the red E2 shape.
6 - Muted.
So to me, this form of a 9 chord draws from, or connects, three shapes.
On to the second variation of a C9 chord from Kirk's lesson:

The heavy vertical line on the 8th fret represent a bar. OK, let's deconstruct it the same way:

1 - The 2 note is taken from the yellow bar (or split E shape).
2 - The 5 note is taken from the yellow bar (or split E shape).
3 - The 3 note is taken from the orange E shape.
4 - The 7 note is taken from the orange E shape.
5 - The 5 note is taken from the orange E shape.
6 - The 1 note is taken from the yellow bar (or split E shape).
This form of the C9 chord draws from, or connects, two shapes.