Em69 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Em69 — drop 2 voicings
Em69 is E, G, B, C# and F# — Em6 with the ninth added as well.
It sounds cool and entirely at rest. No seventh, so nothing leans: a common last chord of a minor tune.
Em69 notes and formula
| E | G | B | C# | F# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 | 9 |
Minor tonic — nothing in it is pulling.
Also written Em6/9, Emin6/9 or E-6/9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Em69
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
Em69 has 13 of them, on the top four strings, the bottom four strings and the middle four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: E in the bass, G in the bass, C# in the bass and F# in the bass. The one to learn first is the E shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the top four strings, 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 x7567x — no barre and low, at the 5th fret. 1 of the 10 shapes here sits in open position. 6 of the 10 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 022022 | open position | E, root position | F# | barred |
| 322422 | 2nd fret | G, 1st inversion | F# | barred |
| x7567x | 5th fret | E, root position | F# | all fretted |
| 0-10-11-11-12-0 | 10th fret | E, root position | B | 2 open strings |
| 12-10-11-11-x-x | 10th fret | E, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x-10-11-11-12-12 | 10th fret | G, 1st inversion | E | all fretted |
| 12-x-11-12-12-14 | 11th fret | E, root position | F# | barred |
| 12-x-14-12-14-14 | 12th fret | E, root position | F# | barred |
| x-x-14-12-14-14 | 12th fret | E, root position | F# | barred |
| x-14-14-12-14-14 | 12th fret | B, 2nd inversion | F# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell, 9 drop 3, 13 rootless and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Em69, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (A).
How to use Em69
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Em69 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 Em69 belongs to D major (the ii, the supertonic) and B minor (the iv, the subdominant).
What to play over Em69
Every note of Em69 is in E dorian and E melodic minor.
Chords near Em69
Change one note of Em69 and you have Em6 (drop the ninth), Em9 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh), EmMaj9 (the sixth becomes a major seventh), E69 (the minor third becomes a major third), Em/C# (drop the ninth) or Em/F# (drop the sixth).
Em69 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Em69’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.