Ebmaj7 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Ebmaj7 — drop 3 voicings
Ebmaj7 is Eb, G, Bb and D — Eb with the major seventh added on top.
It sounds lush, and only just resolved. The everyday tonic of jazz, bossa and neo-soul.
Tonic — a resting chord, but a soft one.
Ebmaj7 notes and formula
| Eb | G | Bb | D |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
Also written EbM7, EbΔ7, EbΔ, Ebma7 or Eb major 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ebmaj7
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
Ebmaj7 has 9 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: Eb in the bass, G in the bass, Bb in the bass and D in the bass. The one to learn first is the G shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, 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.
Play Ebmaj7 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 9 (F), the #11 (A) or the 13 (C).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- xx1333, 1st fret, Eb, root position, top note G, barred
- x65333, 3rd fret, Eb, root position, top note G, barred
- x6574x, 4th fret, Eb, root position, top note Eb, all fretted
- x68786, 6th fret, Eb, root position, top note Bb, all fretted
- x-x-x-8-8-10, 8th fret, Eb, root position, top note D, all fretted
- x-x-8-8-8-10, 8th fret, Bb, 2nd inversion, top note D, barred
- 11-13-12-12-11-11, 11th fret, Eb, root position, top note Eb, barred
- x-x-13-15-15-15, 13th fret, Eb, root position, top note G, barred
How to use Ebmaj7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Ebmaj7 is Fm7 to Bb7 — the ii and the V of Eb — and Bb7 shares its third and seventh with Fm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Ebmaj7 belongs to C minor (the ♭III), Eb major (the I, the tonic), G minor (the ♭VI) and Bb major (the IV, the subdominant).
What to play over Ebmaj7
Every note of Ebmaj7 is in Eb major and Eb lydian.
Chords near Ebmaj7
Change one note of Ebmaj7 and you have Eb (drop the major seventh), Ebmaj7b5 (the fifth becomes the flat fifth), Ebmaj7#5 (the fifth becomes the sharp fifth), Ebmaj9 (add the ninth), EbmMaj7 (the major third becomes the minor third) or Ebadd9 (the major seventh becomes the ninth).
Ebmaj7 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major 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.