On the bass, the Emaj7 chord is the major 7th chord built from E, G#, B, D#. On bass it is outlined with the arpeggio E, B, E, G# — root, 5th, root, 3rd. Keep this page open while you practise: it lists the notes, every practical voicing, the mistakes that make it sound wrong and the progressions where it does its best work.
What notes are in the Emaj7 chord?
The Emaj7 chord is a major 7th chord, and its notes are fixed: E, G#, B, D#. Every voicing on every instrument uses these same notes, in some order and in some octave — change one of them and you are playing a different chord. The table below lists each note with its interval from the root E, so you can see the structure of Emaj7 at a glance. On the bass, play E, B, E, G# and hear how the arpeggio spells out Emaj7 without ever playing it as a block.
| Note | Interval |
|---|---|
| E | Root |
| G# | 3 |
| B | 5 |
| D# | 7 |
The root is E, the note the chord is named after and the note your ear hears as home. Above it, the intervals in Emaj7 are 3, 5, 7. That combination is what makes Emaj7 sound the way it does: the intervals decide the colour, and the root decides the pitch. On the bass, the notes appear in the order the fingering dictates, but the set of notes never changes.
Emaj7 sounds warm and open, the sound of jazz ballads and soft pop, where the major 7th colours rather than pulls. Listen for that character when you play it — if Emaj7 does not sound that way, one of the notes is probably wrong, and the table above is the place to check. On the bass, play E, B, E, G# and hear how the arpeggio spells out Emaj7 without ever playing it as a block.
Comparing Emaj7 with its closest relatives helps to fix it in your ear. In short, major 7th against dominant 7th: Emaj7 keeps the major 7th D#, while the dominant version flattens it to D. The major 7th sounds dreamy; the dominant 7th sounds restless. Hearing the comparison matters more than reading it: play Emaj7, then play the chord it is compared with above, and let your ear find the note that changed. On the bass, Emaj7 is the arpeggio E, B, E, G# — root, 5th, root, 3rd — and that order is the shape to learn.
How to play Emaj7 on bass
On the bass, Emaj7 is not played as a full chord shape the way it is on guitar or piano. Instead you outline it with an arpeggio: the notes E, B, E, G#, which are the chord tones of Emaj7 in the order root, 5th, root, 3rd. That pattern is the working shape for this chord on bass, and it tells the listener exactly which chord is sounding, even though you never play all the notes at once.
Practise the arpeggio of Emaj7 by playing E on beat one, B on beat two, E on beat three and G# on beat four, one note per beat, letting each note ring for its full value. Then play it backwards — G#, E, B, E — so your fingers learn the shape in both directions. The root E is the anchor: it is the note the rest of the band listens for, so land on it cleanly and on time, and let the 5th B and the 3rd G# colour the bar without pulling attention away from the root.
Once the straight arpeggio of Emaj7 is comfortable, try playing just the root E and the 5th B for a whole bar, then add the 3rd G# on the last beat as a passing colour. That root-and-5th skeleton is how most bass lines outline Emaj7 in a real song, and the full arpeggio is the version you use when the arrangement has space for it. Check the notes with the Bass Chord Finder and the Chord Finder, and practise the arpeggio against a slow metronome so the notes land exactly on the beat.
Common mistakes
These are the mistakes that most often make Emaj7 sound wrong on the bass, and each one has a concrete fix. Work through them one at a time rather than trying to fix everything at once.
Flattening the 7th. If D# slips down to D you have the dominant 7th, a different chord with a different job. Check the 7th note carefully — it sits a semitone below the root. On the bass, play E, B, E, G# and hear how the arpeggio spells out Emaj7 without ever playing it as a block.
Clashing the 7th against the root. The major 7th is a semitone below the root, so voicings that put them next to each other in the same octave can sound harsh. Spread the notes out across octaves. On the bass, the arpeggio E, B, E, G# outlines Emaj7 one note at a time.
Playing it like a plain triad. Leaving D# out turns this into an ordinary major chord and loses the whole point of the maj7 colour. Make the 7th audible. On the bass, play E, B, E, G# and hear how the arpeggio spells out Emaj7 without ever playing it as a block.
Using it as a dominant. Emaj7 does not pull to a tonic the way a dominant 7th does. If you need a V chord, use the dominant 7th instead. On the bass, play E, B, E, G# and hear how the arpeggio spells out Emaj7 without ever playing it as a block.
Where Emaj7 is used
Emaj7 is not a diatonic triad in any major or minor key, because it is an extended or altered chord, but its base triad belongs to the key of E major, the key of A major, the key of B major. a tonic chord in jazz and sophisticated pop, where the major 7th is a colour, not a tension. As a dominant-type chord it also points toward A major, the key a perfect fourth above E, which is the tonic it most often resolves to. That is where Emaj7 does its work: not as a home chord, but as a chord that creates movement and then resolves. On the bass, the arpeggio E, B, E, G# outlines Emaj7 one note at a time.
Because Emaj7 is an extended or altered chord, it appears in progressions as a colour or a dominant rather than as a diatonic staple. Try it in place of the plain E triad in a progression you already know, and listen to how the extra notes change the feel — that substitution is the usual way extended chords enter real music. The Chord Progression Builder lets you try Emaj7 in a progression in any key and hear how it connects to the chords around it. On the bass, the arpeggio E, B, E, G# outlines Emaj7 one note at a time.
The same chord on other instruments is covered in Emaj7 on guitar, Emaj7 on piano, Emaj7 on ukulele, and the scales that fit over it are the E major scale and the E minor pentatonic scale. Learning Emaj7 on the bass and then checking it on another instrument is one of the best ways to fix the notes — E, G#, B, D# — in your memory, because the notes stay the same while everything else changes.
Practising Emaj7
A short worked example makes Emaj7 concrete. Play the four-chord progression A – E – F#m – D in A major, the key Emaj7 most often resolves toward: A – E – F#m – D. Play each chord for one bar at a slow tempo, and listen to how Emaj7 sounds in that sequence — whether it feels like home, like a lift, or like a chord on its way somewhere else. Then play the same four chords in a different order, starting on Emaj7 itself, and notice how its character changes when it opens the progression instead of sitting inside it. On the bass, the arpeggio E, B, E, G# outlines Emaj7 one note at a time.
For a second exercise, play Emaj7 and then the chord a fourth above E, back and forth, four times each. That move — a chord and the chord a fourth above it — is the most common resolution in Western music, and it is the move Emaj7 is built for when it acts as a dominant. Finish by playing Emaj7 on its own, slowly, and naming each note out loud as you play it: E, G#, B, D#. Naming the notes while you play them is what turns a shape into knowledge you can use in any key. Test yourself with the Practice Chord Quiz and keep time with the Metronome as the tempo rises. On the bass, play E, B, E, G# and hear how the arpeggio spells out Emaj7 without ever playing it as a block.
Frequently asked questions
How do you play Emaj7 on the bass?
Outline it with the arpeggio E, B, E, G#: root, 5th, root, 3rd. Play one note per beat, with the root E on beat one, and let each note ring. That arpeggio tells the listener exactly which chord is sounding, even though you never play all the notes of Emaj7 at once.
What notes are in the Emaj7 bass arpeggio?
The arpeggio is E, B, E, G#. It starts on the root E, moves to the 5th B, returns to the root E and finishes on the 3rd G#. Those four notes are the chord tones of Emaj7, and playing them in that order is the standard way to outline the chord on bass.
Should you play the full Emaj7 chord on bass?
Usually not. On bass the chord is outlined with the arpeggio E, B, E, G#, not strummed as a block. Playing all the notes at once sounds muddy in the low register and hides the root, which is the note the rest of the band is listening for.
Is Emaj7 a major chord?
Yes — Emaj7 is a major 7th chord, built on a major triad (E, G#, B) with the major 7th D# added. It sounds major, but with a dreamy, jazzy colour the plain triad does not have. On the bass, the arpeggio above spells that note out one note at a time.
What is the difference between Emaj7 and E7?
Emaj7 uses the major 7th D#; E7 uses the flattened 7th D. Emaj7 sounds settled and shimmering, E7 sounds bluesy and wants to resolve. On the bass, the arpeggio above spells that note out one note at a time.