Emaj13 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 Emaj13 — uncommon 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. Everything the major scale offers except the eleventh, which is left out because it fights the third.
Tonic — the major sound with most of the scale showing.
Emaj13 notes and formula
| E | G# | B | D# | F# | C# |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
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
Six notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep G# and D# (they fix the quality) and C# 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 Emaj13 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (A#).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 021122, open position, E, root position, top note F#, barred
- x42244, 2nd fret, C#, 13th in the bass, top note G#, barred
- x76644, 4th fret, E, root position, top note G#, all fretted
- x74644, 4th fret, E, root position, top note G#, barred
- x77899, 7th fret, E, root position, top note C#, all fretted
- 12-11-11-11-12-11, 11th fret, E, root position, top note D#, barred
- 12-12-13-13-14-12, 12th fret, E, root position, top note E, barred
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.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Emaj13 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Emaj13
Change one note of Emaj13 and you have Emaj9 (drop the thirteenth), Emaj11 (the thirteenth becomes the eleventh), E69 (drop the major seventh) or E13 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh).
Emaj13 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major 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.