Chord & FretEm7 · Electric guitar
Em7 is Em with its shoulders down: the same serious subject, told calmly. Give the audio below a listen and hear the change in tone of voice.
Listen first
What you just heard
The recipe: take the Em you know — E, G, B — and add D on top. Now listen to the arpeggio, one note at a time and wait for the fourth note. It doesn't make the chord happy; it takes the weight off its shoulders. That's why bossa nova, neo-soul and the whole of R&B live here.
Now it's your hands' turn
On the electric guitar a chord needs only a few clear notes — the amp sustains them and fills the space, so you mute the strings you are not playing and let the tone carry the rest. So start with the first position below, with 5 open strings on your side — it's also the easiest one to play. Four notes sharing the same space, so there's one rule: every single one has to ring. Play it slowly, listen for each voice. A muffled chord here is a double waste.
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 · see it in Chord & Fret
Mid-neck positions are the favorites of anyone backing a singer: they leave the treble free for the voice. File it away for that day.
Left-handed? Mirror's right here
What is Em7?
Em7: E minor with Seventh. The notes are E, G, B, D (fixed-do: Mi, Sol, Si, Re) — the degrees 1–b3–5–b7.
Where this chord lives
Now the part beginners rarely get told: Em7's classic job is being the ii — the first piece of the ii–V–I, the most-used sentence in jazz and everything jazz ever touched. Across keys you'll find it as i7 in E minor, v7 in A minor, iv7 in B minor. In other words: this chord is almost never standing still; it's setting something up.
Transpose & Capo — Need it in another key? Move the whole chart and find the easiest capo · try it in Chord & Fret
Identify Chord — Found a shape on your own fretboard? The app names it back · open in Chord & Fret
Where it tends to go
Treating Em7 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 Em7 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. Free to start, no card needed.
When you want to go further
For improvising, 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 Dorian ♭2 (E F G A B C# D · 1 b2 b3 4 5 6 b7: a dorian with a lowered second) contain the whole chord. And the jazz shapes at the bottom are these same four notes rearranged across the neck: same chord, arranger's polish.
E Dorian
4 more scale positions on the neck
That's over 35,000 mapped scale shapes in Chord & Fret Pro, ready to play.
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.
Improvising in context
To improvise over Em7 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 · use it in Chord & Fret
The same chord, dressed for jazz
Jazz Lab — Drop 2, drop 3 and shell in any key — the Jazz Lab opens them all · open in Chord & Fret
Remember I said it's setting something up? This is it: A7. Play Em7 → A7 and you've just built half a ii–V — the gear that's been turning jazz for a hundred years.