Em7 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 Em7 — drop 3 voicings
Em7 is E, G, B and D — Em with the flat seventh added.
It sounds smooth and unhurried. The ii of every major key, so most progressions you already know begin on one of these.
Em7 notes and formula
| E | G | B | D |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 |
Pre-dominant — the ii of a major key, and a tonic in its own right.
Also written Emin7, E-7 or E minor 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Em7
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.
Em7 has 10 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from the 2nd fret up to the 99th — every inversion the chord has: E in the bass, G in the bass, B in the bass and D in the bass. The one to learn first is the G shape at the 2nd fret.
5 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, 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 020000 — no barre and 5 open strings. 3 of the 9 shapes here sit in open position. 2 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 020000 | open position | E, root position | E | 5 open strings |
| 022030 | open position | E, root position | E | 3 open strings |
| 022433 | open position | E, root position | G | 1 open string |
| xx2433 | 2nd fret | E, root position | G | all fretted |
| x7575x | 5th fret | E, root position | E | all fretted |
| x7578x | 5th fret | E, root position | G | all fretted |
| x79787 | 7th fret | E, root position | B | barred |
| x-x-9-9-8-10 | 8th fret | B, 2nd inversion | D | all fretted |
| 12-14-12-12-12-12 | 12th fret | E, root position | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 8 shell, 15 drop 2 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Em7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (F#), the 11 (A) and the 13 (C#).
How to use Em7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Em7 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 Em7 belongs to C major (the iii), D major (the ii), E minor (the i), G major (the vi), A minor (the v) and B minor (the iv).
What to play over Em7
Every note of Em7 is in E minor pentatonic, E blues, E dorian, E natural minor and E phrygian.
Chords near Em7
Change one note of Em7 and you have Em (drop the flat seventh), Em6 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth), Em7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Em9 (add the ninth), EmMaj7 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh) or E7 (the minor third becomes a major third).
Em7 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Em7’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.