Ebmaj9 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About Ebmaj9 — drop 3 voicings
Ebmaj9 is Eb, G, Bb, D and F — Ebmaj7 with the ninth stacked above it.
It sounds a maj7 with more air in it. The ninth argues with nothing here, so it works anywhere a maj7 does.
Ebmaj9 notes and formula
| Eb | G | Bb | D | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Tonic — an extended resting chord.
Also written EbM9, EbΔ9, Ebma9 or Eb major 9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ebmaj9
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.
Ebmaj9 has 9 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: Eb in the bass, G in the bass, D in the bass and F in the bass. The one to learn first is the F 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.
Start with x6576x — no barre and low, at the 5th fret. None of the shapes for Ebmaj9 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 3rd fret. 6 of the 11 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 3rd fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x63333 | 3rd fret | Eb, root position | G | barred |
| x6576x | 5th fret | Eb, root position | F | all fretted |
| 66576x | 5th fret | Bb, 2nd inversion | F | barred |
| x-8-8-8-8-10 | 8th fret | F, 9th in the bass | D | barred |
| x-x-8-10-8-10 | 8th fret | Bb, 2nd inversion | D | all fretted |
| 11-8-8-8-8-10 | 8th fret | Eb, root position | D | barred |
| 11-10-12-10-11-10 | 10th fret | Eb, root position | D | barred |
| 11-13-12-12-11-13 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | F | all fretted |
| x-x-12-12-11-13 | 11th fret | D, 3rd inversion | F | all fretted |
| x-x-13-12-15-13 | 12th fret | Eb, root position | F | all fretted |
| 15-13-13-15-15-13 | 13th fret | G, 1st inversion | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell, 13 drop 2, 15 rootless and 3 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Ebmaj9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (A) and the 13 (C).
How to use Ebmaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Ebmaj9 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 Ebmaj9 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 Ebmaj9
Every note of Ebmaj9 is in Eb major and Eb lydian.
Chords near Ebmaj9
Change one note of Ebmaj9 and you have Ebmaj7 (drop the ninth), Ebmaj11 (add the fourth), Ebmaj13 (add the sixth), EbmMaj9 (the major third becomes a minor third), Ebadd9 (drop the major seventh) or Eb69 (the major seventh becomes a sixth).
Ebmaj9 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Ebmaj9’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.