E5 is E and B — with the third taken out altogether.
It sounds blunt, and neither major nor minor. Distortion turns a real third to mud, which is why rock guitar plays this instead of a triad.
Neutral — with no third it commits to no mode.
Also written E(no 3rd) or E power chord.
E5 has no third, so it is neither major nor minor, and it fits a minor-pentatonic tune where a triad’s third would clash. A riff moves the one shape along the neck, root on the notes of the scale.
Listen for: The root climbs a minor third, then a whole step, and drops back home; the shape never changes.
Heard in“Hold On! I’m Comin’”“Rumble” (I5 – ♭VII5 – I5)
In which keys. Every note of E5 belongs to C major, C# minor, D major, E major, E minor, F# minor, G major, Ab minor, A major, A minor, B major and B minor.
Every note of E5 is in E major pentatonic, E minor pentatonic, E blues, E major and E natural minor.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where E5 sits in it. Every scale.
Change one note of E5 and you have (add the major third), (add the minor third), (add the second), (add the fourth), (add the major third) or (add the major third).
E5 is a suspended chord — root and fifth, with a second or fourth where the third would be — or nothing at all. Suspended and power chords on every root.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.
Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.