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E minor chord on piano

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

Interactive piano keyboardSelected notes: E4 · G4 · 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
♭3G43
5B47

The notes and their roles

E minor contains E, G and B. From the root, the semitone offsets are 0, 3, 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
GMinor third3
BPerfect fifth7

Read this shape accurately

The G natural in E minor is a white key. Raising that one note to G-sharp gives E major while the root E and fifth B stay in place.

Change only the third

Hold E and B steady. Raise G by one semitone to G♯ and the quality changes to major. 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 · G4 · 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 · GB

A short listening check

Play E minor together, then as separate notes. Name the minor 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