EbmMaj9 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
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About EbmMaj9 — drop 2 voicings
EbmMaj9 is Eb, Gb, Bb, D and F — EbmMaj7 with the ninth added on top.
It sounds the same unease with more colour over it. The ninth softens the edge without resolving anything.
EbmMaj9 notes and formula
| Eb | Gb | Bb | D | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |
Minor tonic — melodic minor, extended.
Also written EbmM9, Ebm(maj9) or Eb-Δ9. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play EbmMaj9
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
EbmMaj9 has 7 of them, on the middle four strings, the bottom four strings and the top four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: Eb in the bass, Gb in the bass, D in the bass and F in the bass. The one to learn first is the Gb shape at the 2nd fret.
3 of them sit on the top four strings, 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 x6476x — no barre and low, at the 4th fret. None of the shapes for EbmMaj9 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 3 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 111332 | 1st fret | F, 9th in the bass | Gb | barred |
| x6476x | 4th fret | Eb, root position | F | all fretted |
| 698766 | 6th fret | Bb, 2nd inversion | Bb | barred |
| 11-9-x-10-11-10 | 9th fret | Eb, root position | D | all fretted |
| 11-9-12-10-x-x | 9th fret | Eb, root position | F | all fretted |
| 11-13-12-11-11-13 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 5 drop 3 and 13 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of EbmMaj9, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (Ab) and the 13 (C).
How to use EbmMaj9
How you get to it. The turn that lands on EbmMaj9 is Fm7♭5 to Bb7♭9: the ii and the V of Eb minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
What to play over EbmMaj9
Every note of EbmMaj9 is in Eb harmonic minor and Eb melodic minor.
Chords near EbmMaj9
Change one note of EbmMaj9 and you have Ebmaj9 (the minor third becomes a major third), Ebm69 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), Ebm9 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh), EbmMaj7 (drop the ninth), EbmMaj11 (add the fourth) or Ebmadd9 (drop the major seventh).
EbmMaj9 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On EbmMaj9’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.