Em9 guitar chord
The root left to the bass player. Frees a finger for a tension.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Em9 — rootless voicings
Em9 is E, G, B, D and F# — Em7 with the ninth stacked above it.
It sounds warm, and considerably richer than an m7. The standard voicing for a ii chord once the plain one has been played enough.
Em9 notes and formula
| E | G | B | D | F# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 |
Pre-dominant or minor tonic — an m7’s job with more colour.
Also written Emin9, E-9 or E minor 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Em9
Leave the root to the bass player. In a band nobody misses it, and the ear supplies it from the guide tones anyway.
The finger it frees goes to a tension, which is why these sound richer than the shape they came from rather than thinner.
Em9 has 14 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from the 2nd fret up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: G in the bass, B in the bass, D in the bass and F# in the bass. The one to learn first is the D 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 020002 — no barre and 4 open strings. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 020002 | open position | E, root position | F# | 4 open strings |
| 022032 | open position | E, root position | F# | barred |
| 354453 | 3rd fret | G, 1st inversion | G | all fretted |
| x7577x | 5th fret | E, root position | F# | barred |
| x-9-9-9-8-10 | 8th fret | F#, 9th in the bass | D | barred |
| x-x-9-11-8-10 | 8th fret | B, 2nd inversion | D | all fretted |
| 0-10-12-11-12-10 | 10th fret | E, root position | D | 1 open string |
| 12-10-x-11-12-10 | 10th fret | E, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-10-12-11-12-12 | 10th fret | G, 1st inversion | E | barred |
| 12-14-12-12-12-14 | 12th fret | E, root position | F# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 6 shell, 13 drop 2, 9 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Em9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (A) and the 13 (C#).
How to use Em9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Em9 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 Em9 belongs to D major (the ii, the supertonic), E minor (the i, the tonic), G major (the vi, the submediant) and B minor (the iv, the subdominant).
What to play over Em9
Every note of Em9 is in E dorian and E natural minor.
Chords near Em9
Change one note of Em9 and you have Em69 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth), Em7 (drop the ninth), Em11 (add the fourth), EmMaj9 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), E9 (the minor third becomes a major third) or E7#9 (the ninth becomes a major third).
Em9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Em9’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.