Emaj13 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Emaj13 — shell voicings
Emaj13 is E, G#, B, D#, F# and C# — Emaj9 with the thirteenth on top, and the eleventh left out.
It sounds full and wide open. Six notes into four fingers means something goes: keep the third, the seventh and the thirteenth.
Emaj13 notes and formula
| E | G# | B | D# | F# | C# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
Tonic — the major sound with most of the scale showing.
Also written EM13, EΔ13 or E major 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Emaj13
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
Emaj13 has 4 of them, on the bottom four strings, strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 12th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the E shape at the 6th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with x76644 — no barre and low, at the 4th fret. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 5 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 021122 | open position | E, root position | F# | barred |
| x42244 | 2nd fret | C#, 13th in the bass | G# | barred |
| x76644 | 4th fret | E, root position | G# | all fretted |
| x74644 | 4th fret | E, root position | G# | barred |
| x77899 | 7th fret | E, root position | C# | all fretted |
| 12-11-11-11-12-11 | 11th fret | E, root position | D# | barred |
| 12-12-13-13-14-12 | 12th fret | E, root position | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 13 drop 2, 9 drop 3, 25 rootless and 4 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Emaj13, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (A#).
How to use Emaj13
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Emaj13 is F#m7 to B7 — the ii and the V of E — and B7 shares its third and seventh with F#m7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Emaj13 belongs to C# minor (the ♭III), E major (the I, the tonic), Ab minor (the ♭VI) and B major (the IV, the subdominant).
What to play over Emaj13
Every note of Emaj13 is in E major and E lydian.
Chords near Emaj13
Change one note of Emaj13 and you have Emaj9 (drop the sixth), Emaj11 (the sixth becomes a fourth), E69 (drop the major seventh) or E13 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh).
Emaj13 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Emaj13’s sound and use this page follows Ted Pease & Ken Pullig, Modern Jazz Voicings (Berklee Press, 2001). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.