Bb is Bb, D and F.
It sounds plain and completely at rest. The reference every other chord on this page is a modification of.
Tonic — the chord a progression stops on.
Also written Bbmaj, BbM or Bb major.
The chord a minor scale builds on its fifth degree is minor, but Bb is what gets played there. Its major third is the leading tone, a half step below the root of Ebm; without it the chord doesn’t sound like a dominant.
Listen for: The leading tone rises a half step to the root of the i. On the minor v the same string is a whole step below it, and the pull is gone.
Bb is the IV of F, which is the IV of C: two plagal steps in a row, each a fourth up. The same pair of neighbour notes falls in each step, a rock staple since the mid-sixties.
Listen for: One voice steps down twice, a half step and then a whole step, from the flat seventh of the key to its fifth.
Heard in“Gloria”“I Can’t Explain”“Hey Jude” (coda)
In which keys. Every note of Bb belongs to C minor, D minor, Eb major, F major, G minor and Bb major.
Every note of Bb is in Bb major pentatonic, Bb major, Bb mixolydian, Bb lydian and Bb lydian dominant.
Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where Bb sits in it. Every scale.
Change one note of Bb and you have (the major third becomes the minor third), (the major third becomes the second), (the major third becomes the fourth), (add the major seventh), (add the ninth) or (drop the major third).
Bb is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.
Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.