Eb13 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Eb13 — drop 2 voicings
Eb13 is Eb, G, Bb, Db, F and C — Eb9 with the thirteenth added on top.
It sounds big and open. Six notes will not fit under four fingers: the fifth goes first, then the ninth, and the third, flat seventh and thirteenth stay.
Eb13 notes and formula
| Eb | G | Bb | Db | F | C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 | 9 | 13 |
Dominant — the full V chord.
Also written Ebdom13 or Eb dominant 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Eb13
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
Eb13 has 13 of them, on the middle four strings, the top four strings and the bottom four strings, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: Eb in the bass, G in the bass, Db in the bass and C in the bass. The one to learn first is the C shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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 x65688 — no barre and low, at the 5th fret. None of the shapes for Eb13 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 5th fret. 6 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 5th fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x65688 | 5th fret | Eb, root position | C | all fretted |
| x65668 | 5th fret | Eb, root position | C | barred |
| 666688 | 6th fret | Bb, 2nd inversion | C | barred |
| 11-8-10-8-8-9 | 8th fret | Eb, root position | Db | barred |
| 11-10-10-0-9-9 | 9th fret | Eb, root position | Db | 1 open string |
| 11-10-10-10-11-9 | 9th fret | Eb, root position | Db | barred |
| 11-11-11-12-13-13 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | F | barred |
| 11-13-11-12-13-11 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 2 shell, 8 drop 3 and 24 rootless voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Eb13, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (A).
How to use Eb13
Eb13 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, Eb13 → Ab. 2 voices move by a semitone, and 2 notes are common to both chords.
| In Eb13 | Moves | In Ab |
|---|---|---|
| Eb, the root | stays where it is | Eb, the fifth |
| G, the major third | rises a semitone | Ab, the root |
| 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 |
| C, the thirteenth | stays where it is | C, the major third |
In which keys. Every note of Eb13 belongs to F minor (the ♭VII) and Ab major (the V, the dominant).
What to play over Eb13
Every note of Eb13 is in Eb mixolydian and Eb lydian dominant.
Chords near Eb13
Change one note of Eb13 and you have Ebmaj13 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), Eb69 (drop the flat seventh), Eb9 (drop the sixth) or Eb9#11 (the sixth becomes a flat fifth).
Eb13 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On Eb13’s sound and use this page follows Ted Pease & Ken Pullig, Modern Jazz Voicings (Berklee Press, 2001). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.