About Bbm — triad voicings
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.
Bbm notes and formula
| Bb | Db | F |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 |
Tonic — minor chords rest as readily as major ones.
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
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.
Bbm has 46 of them, on the top three strings, the middle four strings, the top four strings, the high-middle three, the low-middle three, the bottom four strings, the bottom three strings, strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: Bb in the bass, Db in the bass and F in the bass. The one to learn first is the Bb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
6 of them sit on the middle four strings, 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 x4332x — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Bbm uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 2 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x13321 | 1st fret | Bb, root position | F | all fretted |
| x4332x | 2nd fret | Db, 1st inversion | Db | all fretted |
| 6433x6 | 3rd fret | Bb, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| 688666 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | barred |
| xx8666 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | barred |
| x-x-8-10-11-9 | 8th fret | Bb, root position | Db | all fretted |
| x-x-11-10-11-9 | 9th fret | Db, 1st inversion | Db | all fretted |
| x-13-11-10-11-x | 10th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x-13-15-15-14-13 | 13th fret | Bb, root position | 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 a major third), Bbdim (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Bbsus2 (the minor third becomes a ninth), Bbsus4 (the minor third becomes a 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.
On Bbm’s sound and use this page follows Edward Aldwell & Carl Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading (Schirmer / Cengage, 4th ed., 2011). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.