Em6 Chord on Guitar
Em6 = E – G – B – C# (Root, Minor 3rd, Perfect 5th, Major 6th)
Em6 adds a major sixth on top of the open E-minor triad, a combination that gives the chord a distinctive bittersweet, slightly unresolved color — neither as dark as a plain minor triad nor as smooth as a minor seventh, sitting in its own particular emotional territory.
E, G, B, and C# make up the chord — root, minor third, fifth, major sixth. As i6 of E minor it's a favorite color chord in film-score-adjacent and moodier singer-songwriter guitar writing, where the major sixth against the minor third creates a wistful tension that a plain Em or even an Em7 doesn't quite capture.
Fingerings
Open Position
How to Practice It
Three extra fingers are needed in open position, spread across the A, D, and B strings — notice the sixth-degree note doesn't sit conveniently next to the other two, so the hand has to manage two separate areas of the fretboard even without a barre involved. Because the major sixth clashes gently against the minor third, take care that both notes ring clearly rather than blurring together, since that specific clash is the entire reason to reach for this chord instead of a plain Em.
Common Progressions
- Em – Em6 – Em (i – i6 – i, a color shift on the minor tonic)
- Em6 – Am – B7 – Em (i6 – iv – V7 – i)
- Em6 – C – D – Em (i6 – VI – VII – i)
- Am – Em6 – B7 – Em (iv – i6 – V7 – i)
FAQ
- Why does Em6 sound different from plain Em or Em7?
- The added major sixth sits in gentle tension against the chord's minor third, producing a bittersweet, unresolved color distinct from the plain minor triad's starker darkness or the minor seventh's smoother resolution.
- Is Em6 hard to play?
- It needs three extra fingers spread across three different strings in open position, which is more independent finger placement than plain Em requires, though there's no barre involved to add further difficulty.
- Where does Em6 typically get used?
- In moodier, more harmonically colorful minor-key writing — singer-songwriter and film-score-adjacent guitar parts especially — where the specific bittersweet quality of a minor-sixth tonic chord fits the material better than a plain minor triad.
- How does Em6 compare to Em7?
- Em7 adds a flat seventh, creating a smoother, more settled minor-seventh color, while Em6's major sixth creates a brighter but more tense, unresolved sound — the two extended minor chords have quite different personalities despite both being built from the same Em triad.
- Does Em6 ever substitute for a major chord?
- Interestingly, Em6 shares three notes with C#m7b5, so in certain jazz-harmony contexts the two can function as related substitutes, though on guitar Em6 is more commonly reached for simply as its own distinct minor-tonic color.
- Is Em6 common in classical guitar repertoire?
- Minor sixth chords generally have a long history in classical harmony as a cadential color chord, often used just before a dominant, and that same function carries over into more classically influenced guitar writing.
- How does Em6 compare in fingering difficulty to D#m6, the same shape at the eleventh fret?
- Em6 is considerably easier since it sits in open position with wide string spacing, while D#m6 crams the identical fingering pattern into the tight, high eleventh fret.
Em6 on other instruments: Em6 on Piano. Related: how chords are built, chord finder.