Bb Minor guitar chord
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Bbm — 1st inversion
Bbm is Bb, Db and F — Bb with the third lowered a semitone.
It sounds darker than a major triad, and just as settled. The i of a minor key, and the vi, ii or iii of a major one.
Tonic — minor chords rest as readily as major ones.
Bbm notes and formula
| Bb | Db | F |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 |
Also written Bbmin, Bb- or Bb minor. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bbm
Bbm in 1st inversion puts Db in the bass instead of Bb, the 3rd of the chord. The notes are the same; what changes is what the bass line does, which is most of why you would reach for it — it lets the lowest voice move by step where the root would have jumped.
2 of Bbm’s 9 common shapes do this:x4332xx-x-11-10-11-9
All 9 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x13321, 1st fret, Bb, root position, top note F, all fretted
- x4332x, 2nd fret, Db, 1st inversion, top note Db, all fretted
- 6433x6, 3rd fret, Bb, root position, top note Bb, all fretted
- 688666, 6th fret, Bb, root position, top note Bb, barred
- xx8666, 6th fret, Bb, root position, top note Bb, barred
- x-x-8-10-11-9, 8th fret, Bb, root position, top note Db, all fretted
- x-x-11-10-11-9, 9th fret, Db, 1st inversion, top note Db, all fretted
- x-13-11-10-11-x, 10th fret, Bb, root position, top note Bb, all fretted
- x-13-15-15-14-13, 13th fret, Bb, root position, top note F, all fretted
How to use Bbm
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Bbm is Cm7♭5 to F7♭9: the ii and the V of Bb minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Bbm belongs to C# major (the vi), Eb minor (the v), F minor (the iv), F# major (the iii), Ab major (the ii) and Bb minor (the i).
What to play over Bbm
Every note of Bbm is in Bb minor pentatonic, Bb blues, Bb dorian, Bb natural minor and Bb phrygian.
Chords near Bbm
Change one note of Bbm and you have Bb (the minor third becomes the major third), Bbdim (the fifth becomes the flat fifth), Bbsus2 (the minor third becomes the second), Bbsus4 (the minor third becomes the fourth), Bbm6 (add the sixth) or Bbm7 (add the flat seventh).
Bbm is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor 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.