D dominant 7th sharp 9 chord

Playing it

There’s no open-string way to play D7♯9 on guitar with the root in the bass, so the standard shape is a barre across the 10th fret (10-12-10-11-10-13).

On piano, D7♯9 has one black key (F♯) and four white keys. In root position it spans more than an octave, so many pianists play the root with the left hand and the rest with the right.

On ukulele the usual D7♯9 shape is 2523, using four fingers. It leaves out the root, which a bass player (or your ear) fills in.

Related chords

Move a single note and D7♯9 becomes a different chord: drop the E♯ for D7, drop the F♯ for Dm7, lower E♯ to E for D9 and swap F♯ for E for Dm9.

Where you’ll hear it

Notice the E♯ in D7♯9 (D F♯ A C E♯): each note of the chord takes its own letter (D–F–A–C–E), so the augmented 9th has to be written E♯ rather than F — the same key on a piano, spelled to fit the chord.