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E major chord on piano

Find the E major notes, inspect their piano positions, and compare inversions with an audible reference.

Interactive piano keyboardSelected notes: E4 · G♯4 · B4. Gold marks the root when one is known.C4D4E4F4G4A4B4C5C♯4D♯4F♯4G♯4A♯4
Root noteSelected tone

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Compare another chord

C Minor

C4 · E♭4 · G4

Notes and intervals

DegreeNotesSemitones
1E40
3G♯44
5B47

The notes and their roles

E major contains E, G♯ and B. From the root, the semitone offsets are 0, 4, 7. The degree formula 1, 3, 5 describes each member relative to the root, not its order in a particular voicing.

NoteRoleSemitones above root
ERoot0
G♯Major third4
BPerfect fifth7

Read this shape accurately

The single black key G-sharp lies between E and B. Compare the sound of that G-sharp with G natural while holding the two outer notes steady.

Change only the third

Hold E and B steady. Lower G♯ by one semitone to G and the quality changes to minor. The root and perfect fifth do not change. This isolates the interval that distinguishes the two triads.

Choose a bass note

The root-position octave example is E4 · G♯4 · B4. Inversions put a different member in the bass while retaining E as the root. The table gives pitch-class order; move the leading notes up an octave as needed to keep each example ascending.

PositionNotes from the bassBass
Root positionE · G♯ · BE
First inversionG♯ · B · EG♯
Second inversionB · E · G♯B

A short listening check

Play E major together, then as separate notes. Name the major third before looking at the display. Repeat in first inversion and check that G♯ is the bass while E remains the root.

  1. Choose the displayed root and quality in the chord explorer.
  2. Compare root position with one inversion at the same tempo.
  3. Save both examples in a named practice collection, or export a reference with note names.

Sources and methods