Em6 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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About Em6 — drop 3 voicings
Em6 is E, G, B and C# — Em with a major sixth added on top.
It sounds bittersweet — minor underneath, major on top. The major sixth over a minor triad comes from the melodic minor, and it is the classic jazz minor tonic.
Em6 notes and formula
| E | G | B | C# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 |
Minor tonic — an ending chord in a minor key.
Also written Emin6, E-6 or E minor 6. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Em6
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
Em6 has 9 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from the 2nd fret up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: E in the bass, G in the bass, B in the bass and C# in the bass. The one to learn first is the G shape at the 2nd fret.
5 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with xx2423 — no barre and down at the nut. 2 of the 10 shapes here sit in open position. 5 of the 10 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 022020 | open position | E, root position | E | barred |
| 022423 | open position | E, root position | G | barred |
| xx2423 | 2nd fret | E, root position | G | all fretted |
| x75657 | 5th fret | E, root position | B | all fretted |
| x7968x | 6th fret | E, root position | G | all fretted |
| x79x89 | 7th fret | E, root position | C# | all fretted |
| xx9989 | 8th fret | B, 2nd inversion | C# | barred |
| x-10-11-9-12-x | 9th fret | G, 1st inversion | B | all fretted |
| 12-x-11-12-12-12 | 11th fret | E, root position | E | barred |
| 12-14-14-12-14-12 | 12th fret | E, root position | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 7 shell, 13 drop 2 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Em6, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (F#) and the 11 (A).
How to use Em6
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Em6 is F#m7♭5 to B7♭9: the ii and the V of E minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Em6 belongs to D major (the ii, the supertonic) and B minor (the iv, the subdominant).
What to play over Em6
Every note of Em6 is in E dorian, E melodic minor and E half-whole diminished.
Chords near Em6
Change one note of Em6 and you have Em (drop the sixth), Edim7 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Em69 (add the ninth), Em7 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh), EmMaj7 (the sixth becomes a major seventh) or E6 (the minor third becomes a major third).
Em6 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Em6’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Piano Book (Sher Music, 1989). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.