EmMaj7b5 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.
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About EmMaj7b5 — shell voicings
EmMaj7b5 is E, G, Bb and D# — Em7b5 with the seventh raised a semitone.
It sounds brittle and impossible to mistake. Scarce enough that most players meet it as a passing sonority rather than as a chord they chose.
EmMaj7b5 notes and formula
| E | G | Bb | D# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | 7 |
Rare tonic — a half-diminished chord with its seventh raised instead.
Also written EmM7b5 or Em(maj7)b5. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play EmMaj7b5
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.
EmMaj7b5 has 6 of them, on the top four strings, the bottom four strings, strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from the 2nd fret up to the 11th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the E shape at the 2nd fret.
Start with 0110x0 — no barre and 3 open strings. 1 of the 6 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0110x0 | open position | E, root position | E | 3 open strings |
| xx2343 | 2nd fret | E, root position | G | all fretted |
| x7x886 | 6th fret | E, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x7888x | 7th fret | E, root position | G | barred |
| 12-13-x-12-11-11 | 11th fret | E, root position | D# | all fretted |
| 12-13-13-12-x-12 | 12th fret | E, root position | E | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 13 drop 2 and 8 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of EmMaj7b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (A) and the b13 (C).
What to play over EmMaj7b5
Every note of EmMaj7b5 is in E diminished.
Chords near EmMaj7b5
Change one note of EmMaj7b5 and you have Edim (drop the major seventh), Edim7 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), Emaj7b5 (the minor third becomes a major third), Em7b5 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh), EmMaj7 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth) or Em/D# (the flat fifth becomes a fifth).
EmMaj7b5 is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
On EmMaj7b5’s sound and use this page follows Robert Rawlins & Nor Eddine Bahha, Jazzology (Hal Leonard, 2005). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.