Ebmaj9 guitar chord
Playable, correctly spelled, and not how the chord is normally voiced. Right now this is the shapes that put a ninth, eleventh or thirteenth below the root.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Ebmaj9 — uncommon 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.
Tonic — an extended resting chord.
Ebmaj9 notes and formula
| Eb | G | Bb | D | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
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
Five notes and four fingers, so something has to go. Keep G and D (they fix the quality) and F (what the symbol is about). Let Bb and Eb go, in that order — a perfect fifth says nothing the root has not, and in a band the bass has the root.
Play Ebmaj9 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the #11 (A) or the 13 (C).
All 11 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x63333, 3rd fret, Eb, root position, top note G, barred
- x6576x, 5th fret, Eb, root position, top note F, all fretted
- 66576x, 5th fret, Bb, 2nd inversion, top note F, barred
- x-8-8-8-8-10, 8th fret, F, 9th in the bass, top note D, barred
- x-x-8-10-8-10, 8th fret, Bb, 2nd inversion, top note D, all fretted
- 11-8-8-8-8-10, 8th fret, Eb, root position, top note D, barred
- 11-10-12-10-11-10, 10th fret, Eb, root position, top note D, barred
- 11-13-12-12-11-13, 11th fret, Eb, root position, top note F, all fretted
- x-x-12-12-11-13, 11th fret, D, 3rd inversion, top note F, all fretted
- x-x-13-12-15-13, 12th fret, Eb, root position, top note F, all fretted
- 15-13-13-15-15-13, 13th fret, G, 1st inversion, top note F, barred
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.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Ebmaj9 sits in it. Every scale.
Chords near Ebmaj9
Change one note of Ebmaj9 and you have Ebmaj7 (drop the ninth), Ebmaj11 (add the eleventh), Ebmaj13 (add the thirteenth), EbmMaj9 (the major third becomes the minor third), Ebadd9 (drop the major seventh) or Eb69 (the major seventh becomes the sixth).
Ebmaj9 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.