About Eb5 — triad voicings
Eb5 is Eb and Bb — Eb with the third taken out altogether.
It sounds blunt, and neither major nor minor. Distortion turns a real third to mud, which is why rock guitar plays this instead of a triad.
Eb5 notes and formula
| Eb | Bb |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5 |
Neutral — with no third it commits to no mode.
Also written Eb(no 3rd) or Eb power chord. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Eb5
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.
Eb5 has 22 of them, on the low-middle three, the bottom three strings, the bottom four strings, the high-middle three, the middle four strings, the top three strings, strings 5-3-2-1, strings 6-4-3-2 and the top four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: Eb in the bass and Bb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Bb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
4 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, 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 x68xxx — only 2 fretted notes. None of the shapes for Eb5 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 6th fret. None of them needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 6th fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x68xxx | 6th fret | Eb, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| 11-13-13-x-x-x | 11th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | all fretted |
How to use Eb5
In which keys. Every note of Eb5 belongs to C minor (the ♭III), C# major (the ii), Eb major (the I), Eb minor (the i), F minor (the ♭VII), F# major (the vi), G minor (the ♭VI), Ab major (the V), Ab minor (the v), Bb major (the IV), Bb minor (the iv) and B major (the iii).
What to play over Eb5
Every note of Eb5 is in Eb major pentatonic, Eb minor pentatonic, Eb blues, Eb major and Eb lydian.
Chords near Eb5
Change one note of Eb5 and you have Eb (add the major third), Ebm (add the minor third), Ebsus2 (add the ninth) or Ebsus4 (add the fourth).
Eb5 is a suspended chord — root and fifth, with a second or fourth where the third would be — or nothing at all. Suspended and power chords on every root.
On Eb5’s sound and use this page follows Robert Rawlins & Nor Eddine Bahha, Jazzology (Hal Leonard, 2005). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.