EmMaj7 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 EmMaj7 — shell voicings
EmMaj7 is E, G, B and D# — Em with the major seventh added on top.
It sounds tense and wrong-footed. A minor triad carrying a major seventh: the semitone under the root over a minor chord is the first bar of a line cliché.
EmMaj7 notes and formula
| E | G | B | D# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 |
Minor tonic — the tonic of the melodic minor.
Also written EmM7, Em(maj7), E-Δ7 or EminMaj7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play EmMaj7
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.
EmMaj7 has 7 of them, on the bottom three strings, strings 6-4-3, strings 5-3-2 and the low-middle three, 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 5th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with 021000 — no barre and 4 open strings. 2 of the 8 shapes here sit in open position. 1 of the 8 needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 021000 | open position | E, root position | E | 4 open strings |
| 022443 | open position | E, root position | G | 1 open string |
| xx2443 | 2nd fret | E, root position | G | all fretted |
| x7544x | 4th fret | E, root position | D# | all fretted |
| x79887 | 7th fret | E, root position | B | all fretted |
| x-10-9-9-12-11 | 9th fret | G, 1st inversion | D# | all fretted |
| x-x-14-12-12-11 | 11th fret | E, root position | D# | all fretted |
| 12-14-13-12-12-12 | 12th fret | E, root position | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 14 drop 2, 9 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of EmMaj7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (F#), the 11 (A) and the 13 (C#).
How to use EmMaj7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on EmMaj7 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 EmMaj7
Every note of EmMaj7 is in E harmonic minor and E melodic minor.
Chords near EmMaj7
Change one note of EmMaj7 and you have Em (drop the major seventh), Emaj7 (the minor third becomes a major third), Em6 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), Em7 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh), EmMaj7b5 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth) or EmMaj9 (add the ninth).
EmMaj7 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On EmMaj7’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.