Jazz Guitar Chords w Tensions

Tensions add color and interest to a guitar chord. Tensions are those note of the scale that are not chord tones, so the notes in between 1, 3, 5 and 7. For more information visit guitar music theory page 3.

Let's start with the tensions of major guitar chords:

The Tensions of Major Guitar Chords

Our starting point will be Cmaj7 on the 3rd position:

The first tension we want to add is the 9. If you followed the guitar music tutorial you know that the 9 is in fact the second note of the scale, but an octave higher (2 + 7=9). When we add the 2 to a chord we don't call it for example the guitar chord D2, but D9.

The 9 of C is a D. On the B string we could change the E to a D, but that would leave us a chord without the 3, which is an important note. So we have to change the voicing to be able to add the 2 and still have the 3 and it goes like this:

To this chord we can add another tension: the 6. Most of the time when a 6 is added to a chord the 7 is omitted because they get in each other's way. So we change the 7 of the above guitar chord to a 6 and that gives us a C6,9:

That's it for the major chords, because the 11 is an avoid note for major chords.

The Tensions of Minor Guitar Chords

Our starting point is this Cm7 chord:

We want to make it a Cm9, so we change the Eb for a D:

To this chord we can add a 6:

or an 11:

The Tensions of Dominant Guitar Chords

The starting point is this C7 voicing:

We can add a 9:

and a 13:

We can also add altered tensions (tensions from the altered scale):

Adding the #9 gives us the famous Jimi Hendrix chord:

We can also add a b9:

The 4 is not really a tension for dominant chords. Adding the 4 makes the chord a sus chord. The sus chord functions as a delay to dominant chords and I'm sure you know the sound of it from disco music.

Here's a typical C9sus4 chord: