The Ebmaj7 chord
The Ebmaj7 chord is the jazz-pop sweetness chord. Its notes (Eb - G - Bb - D) form a major seventh, which is why it shows up across jazz standards, lo-fi beats and indie ballads. Songwriters pick the Ebmaj7 when they want a jazz-pop sheen, and on guitar it sits comfortably under a barre at the second fret. The voicings, theory, progressions and song references that follow are organised so you can skim once or settle in for the full picture.
Hear the Ebmaj7 in the chord builder →Voicings for Ebmaj7
Common ways to grip the Ebmaj7 on guitar and piano. Guitar diagrams read low E to high E left-to-right; an × means muted, an open circle above the nut means an open string. Filled dots are fretted notes.
Guitar , full chord shapes
CAGED-derived voicings for Ebmaj7 across the neck. Pick the shape closest to where your hand already sits.
Guitar , triad shapes
Three-note triad shapes on each string set, shown moving up the neck. Light textures for arpeggios, pop layering and chord-melody work.
Piano voicings
Root position and inversions. The bass note matters: each inversion changes how the chord sits under a melody.
The theory behind Ebmaj7
Progressions that use Ebmaj7
Short progressions that put the Ebmaj7 to work. Each one is shown in a different key so you can pick the one that suits your singer.
This chord appears as a borrowed or passing chord in many major-key progressions.
→ Build this in the chord builderSongs that feature Ebmaj7
Real records where this chord does structural work. No lyrics quoted, just the title and artist so you can pull up a copy and hear it in context.
Related chords
Chords a step away from the Ebmaj7 in the songwriting circle, the natural neighbours when you want a substitution.
Keys where Ebmaj7 lives
The keys where this chord turns up diatonically. Open any key page for the full set of progressions that lean on it.
Related references
Other ways to put the Ebmaj7 to work across the reference library.
More songwriting tools
Got the chord but still wrestling with the lyric? Find the right rhyme in RhymeForge, or break a writer's block with the unexpected word-pair generator in CollisionLab. Need to map a full progression? The chord builder on the home page is where the Ebmaj7 fits into context. All free, no signup.
About the chord builder
The Undercover Zest chord progression builder is a free interactive tool that maps every diatonic and borrowed chord in every key. Click a Roman numeral to hear it, drag chords into a progression, then audition voicings, inversions and tensions until the song clicks.
This page is a static reference for the Ebmaj7. For interactive playback, voice-leading hints and substitution suggestions, open the chord builder above.