Chord & FretEm · Cavaquinho
Two seconds of homework. Play a E major — or just hit play on its page — and right after, listen to this page's audio. Same name, same root. But something got heavier. Nobody has to explain sadness for you to recognize it: that's Em.
Listen first
What you just heard
The trick is smaller than it sounds. Two of the three notes didn't move: E and B stayed put. Only the middle one dropped — a half step, the smallest distance in music — and became G. Now listen to the arpeggio, one note at a time and stop at the second note. That's the one. Half a step separates sunshine from drizzle.
Now it's your hands' turn
On the cavaquinho, four steel strings tuned D–G–B–D pack the chord into a small, bright space — every finger counts. So the first position below is your way in (2 open strings helping) — it's also the easiest one to play. Now the exercise that teaches more than any paragraph: E major, then Em, then major again. Back and forth ten times, slowly. Your ear learns the difference before your brain does.
1 more shape of this chord on the neck
Chord & Fret Pro maps over 200,000 voicings and inversions — hear and play them all.
Precision Tuner — Before you play these shapes, get in tune — chromatic tuner and reference tones · try it in Chord & Fret
Got the first one? Good — the other positions will wait right here. In songs that travel up and down the neck, that's where you'll end up living.
Left-handed? Mirror's right here
What is Em?
Em: E minor. The notes are E, G, B (fixed-do: Mi, Sol, Si) — the degrees 1–b3–5.
Where this chord lives
In real music, Em works almost always as i in E minor, v in A minor, iv in B minor. In global pop it's the famous vi: the serious detour a chorus takes without leaving the key. You've heard it a thousand times; now you'll start noticing it.
Transpose & Capo — Need it in another key? Move the whole chart and find the easiest capo · open in Chord & Fret
Identify Chord — Found a shape on your own fretboard? The app names it back · use it in Chord & Fret
Real songs pass through here: Sertanejo · eixo pop · Folk · axis
Where it tends to go
Treating Em as the home chord (I) of its key, it usually moves toward the pre-dominant (F#m / A) or the dominant (B / D#°) — and the dominant pulls back home. Typically, not a rule.
Every shape of Em lives in Chord & Fret Pro — 4 instruments, 16 tunings, 41 chord types and 57 scales, in every key. Start free. Unlock everything with Pro. 100% offline. Made by musicians, no ads.
When you want to go further
When it's time to improvise, E Dorian (E F# G A B C# D · 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7: the minor scale with a major sixth — the minor that smirks); E Aeolian (E F# G A B C D · 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7: the natural minor, the major scale's relative sibling); E Phrygian (E F G A B C D · 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7: the minor with a lowered second — a Spanish seasoning) work in full. The swaps below are the chord's cousins: different color, same job.
E Dorian
3 more scale positions on the neck
Part of over 35,000 mapped scale shapes in Chord & Fret Pro — see and play every one.
The same E Dorian in its main shapes along the neck — pick whichever position sits under your hand. The rings mark the guide notes (the 3rd and 7th) that carry this chord's color.
Scale — The whole scale on the neck — in boxes or 3 notes per string; on the major modes, on guitar in standard tuning, with the CAGED forms named · open in Chord & Fret
Improvising in context
To improvise over Em as home, the E Aeolian scale covers it whole — it contains every note of the chord. And when the dominant (B) pulls back, the leading tone Eb is the note that wants to resolve home.
Swaps that work:
- Gmaj7 — Relative major (♭III)
- A7 — It's the ii; resolves to this V
Reharmonize — Want richer substitutions? Reharmonize the progression in a tap · see it in Chord & Fret
There's one step left in this story. The serious Em you just learned has a softer, late-afternoon version that lo-fi and bossa nova love: Em7. Go hear the difference.