Triads
E♭ major chord
Bright, stable and resolved — the foundation of most songs.
E♭ is the I chord in E♭ major, IV in B♭ major and V in A♭ major. In minor keys: III in C minor, V in G♯ minor, VI in G minor and VII in F minor.
- Notes
- E♭GB♭
- Formula
- 135
- Built from
- root · major 3rd · perfect 5th
How to play E♭
About the E♭ major chord
E♭ major is at home in jazz, soul and anything with horns, because saxophones and trumpets are pitched in E♭ and B♭. On piano it’s a warm, comfortable key; on guitar it usually means a barre chord or a capo.
Playing it
There’s no open-string way to play E♭ on guitar with the root in the bass, so the standard shape is a barre across the 6th fret (x68886).
On piano, E♭ has two black keys (E♭ and B♭) and one white key.
On ukulele the usual E♭ shape is 0331, using three fingers.
Related chords
E♭ shares two of its three notes with Cm (E♭ and G), its relative minor, and with Gm (G and B♭). That overlap is why these chords sound so natural next to each other — and why they can often stand in for one another.
Move a single note and E♭ becomes a different chord: lower G to G♭ for E♭m, add D♭ for E♭7, add D for E♭maj7 and raise G to A♭ for E♭sus4.
Where you’ll hear it
You’ll find E♭ in common progressions such as E♭–B♭–Cm–A♭ (the pop progression in E♭ major), E♭–A♭–B♭–A♭ (three-chord rock in E♭ major) and E♭–Cm–A♭–B♭ (the ’50s progression in E♭ major).
