About Ab5 — triad voicings
Ab5 is Ab and Eb — Ab with the third taken out altogether.
It sounds blunt, and neither major nor minor. Distortion turns a real third to mud, which is why rock guitar plays this instead of a triad.
Ab5 notes and formula
| Ab | Eb |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5 |
Neutral — with no third it commits to no mode.
Also written Ab(no 3rd) or Ab power chord. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ab5
Three notes on one string set. No seventh, so nothing is claimed about the chord beyond its quality.
Thin on their own, excellent over a bass line or against someone else’s harmony.
Ab5 has 19 of them, on the bottom three strings, the low-middle three, the bottom four strings, the top three strings, the high-middle three, strings 6-4-3-2, the top four strings, the middle four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 11th — every inversion the chord has: Ab in the bass and Eb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Ab shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
3 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with 466xxx — only 3 fretted notes and low, at the 4th fret. None of the shapes for Ab5 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 4th fret. None of them needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 4th fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 466xxx | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| x-11-13-x-x-x | 11th fret | Ab, root position | Eb | all fretted |
How to use Ab5
In which keys. Every note of Ab5 belongs to C minor (the ♭VI), C# major (the V), C# minor (the v), Eb major (the IV), Eb minor (the iv), E major (the iii), F minor (the ♭III), F# major (the ii), Ab major (the I), Ab minor (the i), Bb minor (the ♭VII) and B major (the vi).
What to play over Ab5
Every note of Ab5 is in Ab major pentatonic, Ab minor pentatonic, Ab blues, Ab major and Ab lydian.
Chords near Ab5
Change one note of Ab5 and you have Ab (add the major third), Abm (add the minor third), Absus2 (add the ninth) or Absus4 (add the fourth).
Ab5 is a suspended chord — root and fifth, with a second or fourth where the third would be — or nothing at all. Suspended and power chords on every root.
On Ab5’s sound and use this page follows Robert Rawlins & Nor Eddine Bahha, Jazzology (Hal Leonard, 2005). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.