Emaj9 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 Emaj9 — rootless voicings
Emaj9 is E, G#, B, D# and F# — Emaj7 with the ninth stacked above it.
It sounds a maj7 with more air in it. The ninth argues with nothing here, so it works anywhere a maj7 does.
Emaj9 notes and formula
| E | G# | B | D# | F# |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Tonic — an extended resting chord.
Also written EM9, EΔ9, Ema9 or E major 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Emaj9
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.
Emaj9 has 13 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position 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 nut, 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 021102 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 12 shapes here sits in open position. 6 of the 12 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 021102 | open position | E, root position | F# | 2 open strings |
| xx2142 | 1st fret | E, root position | F# | all fretted |
| 422442 | 2nd fret | G#, 1st inversion | F# | barred |
| x74444 | 4th fret | E, root position | G# | barred |
| x7687x | 6th fret | E, root position | F# | all fretted |
| 77687x | 6th fret | B, 2nd inversion | F# | barred |
| x-9-9-9-9-11 | 9th fret | F#, 9th in the bass | D# | barred |
| x-x-9-11-9-11 | 9th fret | B, 2nd inversion | D# | all fretted |
| 12-9-9-9-9-11 | 9th fret | E, root position | D# | barred |
| 12-11-13-11-12-11 | 11th fret | E, root position | D# | barred |
| 12-14-13-13-12-14 | 12th fret | E, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x-x-13-13-12-14 | 12th fret | D#, 3rd inversion | F# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 11 drop 2, 7 drop 3 and 3 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Emaj9, 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 Emaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Emaj9 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 Emaj9 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 Emaj9
Every note of Emaj9 is in E major and E lydian.
Chords near Emaj9
Change one note of Emaj9 and you have Emaj7 (drop the ninth), Emaj11 (add the fourth), Emaj13 (add the sixth), EmMaj9 (the major third becomes a minor third), Eadd9 (drop the major seventh) or E69 (the major seventh becomes a sixth).
Emaj9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Emaj9’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.