Em · Ukulele

Turn off the living-room light without moving a thing. Same furniture; different mood. That's exactly what Em does to E major. Press play down there and watch the light go out.

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. Play the arpeggio again, no rush and stop at the second note. That's the one. Half a step separates a sunny day from a Monday morning.

Now it's your hands' turn

On the ukulele, the high reentrant G makes every shape light — and with four strings, every note is exposed. So the first position below is your way in (1 open string helping) — the position marked with ⭐ is the easiest to play. And do the exercise that's worth a whole lesson: E major, then Em, then major again. Back and forth ten times, slowly. Your ear learns the difference before your brain does.

Precision Tuner — Before you play these shapes, get in tune — chromatic tuner and reference tones · try it in Chord & Fret

Once the first shape comes out without thinking, the positions below are waiting. That's where Em lives in songs that roam the neck.

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. No ads, no trackers.

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 pop everywhere it tends to be the famous vi — the chord the chorus runs to when it wants to get serious without changing 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.

When you want to go further

To solo over it, 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.

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 · see it 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.

Updated July 9, 2026