EmMaj11 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About EmMaj11 — drop 2 voicings
EmMaj11 is E, G, B, D#, F# and A — EmMaj9 with the eleventh added on top.
It sounds dense and unresolved. Something is always omitted; the ♭3 and the natural 7 are what must not be.
EmMaj11 notes and formula
| E | G | B | D# | F# | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
Minor tonic — the melodic minor as far up as a guitar carries it.
Also written EmM11 or Em(maj11). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play EmMaj11
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
EmMaj11 has 13 of them, on the bottom four strings, the middle four strings and the top four strings, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: E in the bass, G in the bass, D# in the bass and A in the bass. The one to learn first is the E shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the bottom 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 001002 — no barre and 4 open strings. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 4 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001002 | open position | E, root position | F# | 4 open strings |
| xx2243 | 2nd fret | E, root position | G | all fretted |
| x22243 | 2nd fret | B, 2nd inversion | G | barred |
| x75875 | 5th fret | E, root position | A | all fretted |
| x77887 | 7th fret | E, root position | B | barred |
| x77997 | 7th fret | E, root position | B | barred |
| 12-12-13-12-12-14 | 12th fret | E, root position | F# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 7 shell, 8 drop 3, 24 rootless and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of EmMaj11, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 13 (C#).
How to use EmMaj11
How you get to it. The turn that lands on EmMaj11 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.
What to play over EmMaj11
Every note of EmMaj11 is in E harmonic minor and E melodic minor.
Chords near EmMaj11
Change one note of EmMaj11 and you have Emaj11 (the minor third becomes a major third), Em11 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh) or EmMaj9 (drop the fourth).
EmMaj11 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On EmMaj11’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.