This is exciting. I’m sitting on a beach in Florida, while writing a blog on my iPhone, about one of my favorite guitar chords. What a crazy world …eh! When I was a kid we thought it was cool to stretch a string between two tin cans. This is way… better!

Anyway… Em9 has always been one of my favorites. It has a sound that just draws me in. I throw it into songs whenever it seems to fit and I never grow tired of it. The notes that make up an Em9 are… E=Root note, G=b3rd, B=5th, D=b7th, F#=9th. Notice that the D, E, F#, and G (the flat 7th, the root, the 9th, and the flat 3rd) are all very close in relationship to each other on a scale. If they were all played within the same octave the sound could be very dissonant; full of tension. But spread them out into a couple octaves and it’s all very beautiful. You’ll find that in the guitar world you can look at things (like chords) in more than one way. For example you could see this chord as an Em7 with an added 9th. Another way would be to view it as an Em chord on the bottom and part of a D chord on top. If you think about it that could mean that while one person plays an Em concentrating on the lower strings, another could play parts of a D triads in the higher registers. Here’s a few more ways to play it.

 What other chords would sound good around it?

Try these progressions…

Em9 Am7 Em9 Am7 B7 Em9

Em9 A7sus A7 (x2) D

Which one of the chord inversions is best?

You’ll have to use your ear to decide which of these you like best. It’s a matter of personal choice.

Where would you use it?

Well it fits great in the key of G or E minor… How about the key of D.

When playing lead what scales would you use?

The first choice might be E pentatonic. But even then I’d have to through in an F# now and again to bring out that 9th sound. That would Lead me to an E Aeolian scale. Which is an E pentatonic scale with a C and F# added in. Or another way to see it would be to play the G major scale but focus your playing on the notes within the Em9 chord instead of on the G. Another possibility would be E Dorian… That’s playing in D major, but again centering around the notes in the Em9 chord. Here’s some pictures of these scales.

That’s it for now. This blog is sort of an experiment. I want to see what the general response will be… Do I need to explain more basics, or is this at a good educational level. My guess is… both.