Eb11 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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About Eb11 — drop 3 voicings
Eb11 is Eb, Bb, Db, F and Ab — Eb9 with the eleventh added, and the third usually dropped.
It sounds suspended rather than tense. The eleventh sits a semitone above the major third, so the third is usually dropped; some shapes here keep it anyway.
Eb11 notes and formula
| Eb | Bb | Db | F | Ab |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 11 |
Dominant — but effectively a sus chord with a ninth.
Also written Eb9sus4 or Eb dominant 11. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Eb11
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
Eb11 has 17 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: Eb in the bass, Bb in the bass, Db in the bass, F in the bass and Ab in the bass. The one to learn first is the F shape at the nut.
9 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 x65644 — no barre and low, at the 4th fret. None of the shapes for Eb11 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 3 of the 5 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 111123 | 1st fret | F, 9th in the bass | G | barred |
| x65644 | 4th fret | Eb, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| x66686 | 6th fret | Eb, root position | Bb | barred |
| x-10-8-8-9-9 | 8th fret | G | Db | all fretted |
| 11-11-11-12-11-11 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 25 drop 2 and 14 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Eb11
Eb11 is the V of Ab, and that is where it goes if it goes anywhere: the third and the flat seventh are a tritone apart, and both resolve by a semitone into Ab.
Voice by voice, Eb11 → Ab. One voice moves by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In Eb11 | Moves | In Ab |
|---|---|---|
| Eb, the root | stays where it is | Eb, the fifth |
| Bb, the fifth | falls a whole tone | Ab, the root |
| Db, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | C, the major third |
| F, the ninth | falls a whole tone | Eb, the fifth |
| Ab, the eleventh | stays where it is | Ab, the root |
In which keys. Every note of Eb11 belongs to C# major (the ii), Eb minor (the i), F minor (the ♭VII), F# major (the vi), Ab major (the V) and Bb minor (the iv).
What to play over Eb11
Every note of Eb11 is in Eb mixolydian, Eb dorian and Eb natural minor.
Chords near Eb11
Change one note of Eb11 and you have Ebsus2sus4 (drop the flat seventh), Ebm9 (the fourth becomes a minor third), Ebm11 (add the minor third), Eb7sus4 (drop the ninth) or Eb9 (the fourth becomes a major third).
Eb11 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On Eb11’s sound and use this page follows Barrie Nettles & Richard Graf, The Chord Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony (Advance Music, 1997). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.