Triads
E♭ minor chord
Darker and more melancholy than major, but just as stable.
E♭m is the ii chord in D♭ major, iii in B major and vi in F♯ major. In minor keys: i in E♭ minor and iv in B♭ minor.
- Notes
- E♭G♭B♭
- Formula
- 1♭35
- Built from
- root · minor 3rd · perfect 5th
How to play E♭m
About the E♭ minor chord
E♭ minor, with six flats, is a rare and shadowy key in piano music. Guitarists more often meet the same sound as D♯m in songs in B major.
Playing it
There’s no open-string way to play E♭m on guitar with the root in the bass, so the standard shape is a barre across the 6th fret (x68876).
On piano, every note of E♭m is a black key.
On ukulele the usual E♭m shape is 3321, using four fingers.
Related chords
E♭m shares two of its three notes with G♭ (G♭ and B♭), its relative major, and with C♭ (E♭ and G♭). 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♭m becomes a different chord: raise G♭ to G for E♭, add D♭ for E♭m7, swap G♭ for A♭ for E♭sus4 and lower G♭ to F for E♭sus2.
Where you’ll hear it
You’ll find E♭m in common progressions such as D♯m–B–F♯–C♯ (the minor-feel pop progression in F♯ major), D♯m–G♯m–A♯–D♯m (the minor cadence in D♯ minor) and D♯m–C♯–B–A♯ (the Andalusian cadence in D♯ minor).
