Em piano chord, E minor notes and fingering.

The Em piano chord is E minor: the notes E, G and B played together. It is a root (E), a minor third (G, three semitones above the root) and a perfect fifth (B, seven semitones above). Chord charts write it as Em or Emin.

How to play Em on piano

1. Find E on the keyboard. E is the white key just right of the pair of black keys, the last white key before F.
2. With your right hand, put finger 1 on E, finger 3 on G and finger 5 on B. Finger 1 is the thumb.
3. Press all three keys together. In root position they run from E4 to B4, a reach of 7 semitones. Play chord sounds them together and Arpeggio sounds them one by one, from the bottom up.
4. Click Left hand to see the left hand. It plays E3 to B3, one octave lower: E with finger 5, G with finger 3, B with finger 1.
5. The cards under the keyboard hold the three positions, with E, G and B at the bottom in turn. Play and Arpeggio on a card play that position.
6. Open Note names. Every note of this chord is a white key, so the Sharps and Flats choices show the same names.

How Em is built

Counted from the root, the formula is 0, 3, 7. Stacked on each other the gaps are 3 + 4: a minor third (E to G) with a major third (G to B) on top. A minor triad is a major triad with the third moved down one semitone. E major and E minor share E and B, and only the middle note differs: G# against G.

Worked example: the pitch of E4. On a piano tuned to A4 = 440 Hz, a note 5 semitones below A4 has the frequency 440 × 2^(-5/12), which is about 329.63 Hz. G4 is 2 semitones below A4, so 440 × 2^(-2/12) gives about 392.00 Hz.

What the keys look like under your hand

E has a black key on its left (Eb) and none on its right, because E and F are only a semitone apart. All three notes are white keys (E, G and B), so the hand can stay flat and there is no reaching for a black key. The thumb (E) and little finger (B) are both on white keys here, so the hand can lie in its natural shape.

Em inversions and fingering

Em has three positions. In root position E is at the bottom. In the first inversion, G is at the bottom and the chord is written Em/G. In the second inversion, B is at the bottom and the chord is written Em/B. The tightest reach, 7 semitones from the lowest key to the highest, is the root position. The widest, at 9, is the first inversion.

The keys that hold Em

Em fits six of the major and natural minor keys that have a standard key signature, which means every note of it comes from that key's scale. The simplest is C major, with no sharps or flats, where it is chord iii.

Progressions that use Em, with the chord numbers and the chords in that key:

• C major: I-iii-IV-V, which is C, Em, F, G, a climb from the tonic to the dominant.
• A minor: i-iv-v-i, which is Am, Dm, Em, Am, the minor-key cadence.
• G major: I-V-vi-IV, which is G, D, Em, C, the four-chord loop heard in a great deal of pop.

Here is a worked example in C major. The chord before Em in the first progression above is C (C, E and G). From C in root position, the closest way to reach Em is its second inversion (B, E and G, lowest note first): two notes stay where they are, and the others move 1 semitone in total, counting each note against the note in the same place from the bottom.

What Em sounds like

Minor chords sound darker and more serious than major ones, and they carry the mood of many songs. They are not only for sad music, though: in a major key the ii, iii and vi chords are all minor, so a bright song uses them too.

Em is the iii chord in C major, the v chord in A minor and the vi chord in G major.

A common mistake with Em

A common mistake is pressing G# instead of G, one semitone higher than the third of Em. That turns the chord into E major (E, G# and B). If your Em sounds too bright, check the middle finger first.

Chords to learn next

Chords close to Em: E major (same root, with a major third; shares E and B); Em7 (adds a minor seventh; contains all its notes); Edim (lowers the fifth; shares E and G); G major (its relative major; shares G and B).

Once Em feels easy, play it and then E major to hear what one note changes. For chords beyond these six types, and for guitar and ukulele shapes, use the chord finder. To play along with your computer keys, open the virtual piano. The piano chords page lists all 72 chords.