EmMaj11 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 EmMaj11 — rootless voicings
EmMaj11 is E, G, B, D#, F# and A — EmMaj9 with the eleventh added on top.
It sounds dense and unresolved. The melodic minor tonic with most of the scale showing — more a texture than a chord to comp on.
Minor tonic — the melodic minor as far up as a guitar carries it.
EmMaj11 notes and formula
| E | G | B | D# | F# | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 |
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
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.
EmMaj11 has 24 of them, on the middle four strings, the top four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: G in the bass, B in the bass, D# in the bass, F# in the bass and A in the bass. The one to learn first is the A shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
8 of them sit on the middle 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.
Six notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep G and D# (they fix the quality) and A 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 EmMaj11 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 13 (C#).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 001002, open position, E, root position, top note F#, 4 open strings
- xx2243, 2nd fret, E, root position, top note G, all fretted
- x22243, 2nd fret, B, 2nd inversion, top note G, barred
- x75875, 5th fret, E, root position, top note A, all fretted
- x77887, 7th fret, E, root position, top note B, barred
- x77997, 7th fret, E, root position, top note B, barred
- 12-12-13-12-12-14, 12th fret, E, root position, top note F#, barred
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 the major third), Em11 (the major seventh becomes the flat seventh) or EmMaj9 (drop the eleventh).
EmMaj11 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.