What Scale Does the Hendrix Chord Come From? | Improvising Over Dominant 7 Sharp 9

improvisation lead guitar music theory scales Jul 08, 2025

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Have you heard of the “Hendrix chord?”

It’s a popular nickname for the dominant 7 sharp 9 chord—a tricky chord with a unique, tense structure.

The Hendrix chord can be tough to improvise over beyond only using the minor pentatonic or blues scale.

In this lesson, we’ll explore a powerful way to break out of that limitation.

Theoretically, the Hendrix chord comes from a “synthetic scale” with eight notes instead of seven. It sounds incredible—especially when combined with the bluesy sounds we’re used to.

I’ll show you three different scales you can use to improvise over the dominant 7 #9 chord (AKA “the Hendrix chord”).

I also include chord diagrams on the screen and demonstrate how each scale sounds over a backing track.

Thanks for watching! Feel free to leave a comment below the video on YouTube to say hi. :)
Cheers, 
~ Jared

🎼 Want to work on other scales? FREE PDF: Click here to download the most important scale diagrams for guitar.

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