How to play Em7 (E m7) on Guitar

Em7 is the E m7 chord. It is built from 4 notes — E, G, B and D — which sit at the root, minor third, perfect fifth and minor seventh above the root E. Written as a formula that is 1P – 3m – 5P – 7m. Those intervals, not the note names, are what give the chord its character: move all of them to a different root and you still hear a m7 chord.

Em7 on guitar is an open shape — 5 strings ring open while 1 is fretted. Open strings do a lot of the work here, which is why this shape sounds fuller than the effort it takes. Arch your fingers so each one lands on its fingertip — a finger leaning flat will deaden the open string next to it, and a single muted string is the most common reason a beginner's chord sounds wrong when the fingering is in fact correct.

The interval that defines this chord is the minor third between E and G. Lowering the third by one semitone is the entire difference between E major and E minor, and it is the reason the chord reads as darker or sadder to most listeners. The added minor seventh stops the chord from sounding like a resting place — it leans forward and wants to resolve, which is exactly why it turns up at the end of a phrase rather than the start.

Em7 belongs to 3 major keys, including C major, where it is the iii chord, G major, where it is the vi chord and D major, where it is the ii chord. That is the practical reason to learn it: a chord that is diatonic to several keys turns up constantly, and knowing which degree it occupies tells you what tends to come next. A iii chord in C major most often moves toward the tonic, so practising Em7 in the context of C will teach you more than practising it in isolation.