D dominant 9th chord

Playing it

There’s no open-string way to play D9 on guitar with the root in the bass, so the standard shape is a barre across the 10th fret (10-12-10-11-10-12).

On piano, D9 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 D9 shape is 2423, using four fingers. It leaves out the root, which a bass player (or your ear) fills in.

Related chords

Move a single note and D9 becomes a different chord: drop the E for D7, drop the C for Dadd9, raise C to C♯ for Dmaj9 and lower F♯ to F for Dm9.