Em9 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Em9 — uncommon 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.
Pre-dominant or minor tonic — an m7’s job with more colour.
Em9 notes and formula
| E | G | B | D | F# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 |
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
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep G and D (they fix the quality) and F# (what the symbol is about). Let B and E go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play Em9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (A) or the 13 (C#).
All 10 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 020002, open position, E, root position, top note F#, 4 open strings
- 022032, open position, E, root position, top note F#, barred
- 354453, 3rd fret, G, 1st inversion, top note G, all fretted
- x7577x, 5th fret, E, root position, top note F#, barred
- x-9-9-9-8-10, 8th fret, F#, 9th in the bass, top note D, barred
- x-x-9-11-8-10, 8th fret, B, 2nd inversion, top note D, all fretted
- 0-10-12-11-12-10, 10th fret, E, root position, top note D, 1 open string
- 12-10-x-11-12-10, 10th fret, E, root position, top note D, all fretted
- x-10-12-11-12-12, 10th fret, G, 1st inversion, top note E, barred
- 12-14-12-12-12-14, 12th fret, E, root position, top note F#, barred
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 natural minor and E dorian.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Em9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Em9
Change one note of Em9 and you have Em69 (the flat seventh becomes the sixth), Em7 (drop the ninth), Em11 (add the eleventh), EmMaj9 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh), Emadd9 (drop the flat seventh) or E9 (the minor third becomes the major third).
Em9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor 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.