Emaj7 is E, G#, B and D#. It keeps the triad and adds the , one fret below the root.
That half step against the root is the chord’s defining sound. Compare with Emaj7 to isolate it.
One repeated root moves down one fret to the major seventh. The other notes stay the same.
At the end of a jazz ii–V–I, Emaj7 can be the home chord. The 3rd of can stay in place as the major 7th of Emaj7.
Also written EM7, EΔ7, EΔ, Ema7 or E major 7.
Drop the third voice from the top an octave instead. The wider gap skips a string, so the muted string is part of the shape.
That result, 3–R–5–7, is the shape usually meant by drop 3. Named by its bass note, as the inversions are here, it is the 1st inversion.
More familiar jazz shapes are drop 3 than drop 2.
Emaj7 is the home chord of E major, where a ii–V–I comes to rest. The dominant’s leading tone doesn’t have to rise to the root: on a major seventh it can stay where it is.
Listen for: The ii’s seventh falls a half step to the dominant’s third, which holds over the barline as the major seventh.
Emaj7 can be reached without its V: from Am7 and D7, the ii–V of the key a minor third higher. Instead of a leading tone rising into the root, the key’s flat sixth falls a half step to the fifth.
Listen for: The key’s flat sixth holds through the first two chords, then falls a half step to the fifth of the I.
In which keys. Every note of Emaj7 belongs to C# minor, E major, Ab minor and B major.
Contains Emaj7 and adds ninth, eleventh and thirteenth.
Contains Emaj7 and adds ninth, sharp eleventh and thirteenth.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.
Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.