Eb7 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 Eb7 — drop 3 voicings
Eb7 is Eb, G, Bb and Db — Eb with the flat seventh added on top.
It sounds restless and pointed at something. The third and the flat seventh are a tritone apart and each moves by a semitone into the next chord; that is the engine of a cadence, and the whole vocabulary of the blues.
Eb7 notes and formula
| Eb | G | Bb | Db |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 |
Dominant — it points a fifth down.
Also written Ebdom7 or Eb dominant 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Eb7
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.
Eb7 has 9 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, G in the bass, Bb in the bass and Db in the bass. The one to learn first is the G shape at the nut.
5 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 xx1323 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Eb7 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 4 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx1323 | 1st fret | Eb, root position | G | all fretted |
| x6564x | 4th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | all fretted |
| x68686 | 6th fret | Eb, root position | Bb | barred |
| xx8889 | 8th fret | Bb, 2nd inversion | Db | barred |
| 11-10-8-8-8-9 | 8th fret | Eb, root position | Db | barred |
| 11-13-11-12-11-11 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell, 14 drop 2 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Eb7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (Fb), the 9 (F), the #9 (F#), the #11 (A), the b13 (Cb) and the 13 (C).
How to use Eb7
Eb7 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, Eb7 → Ab. 2 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In Eb7 | 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 |
In which keys. Every note of Eb7 belongs to F minor (the ♭VII) and Ab major (the V, the dominant).
What to play over Eb7
Every note of Eb7 is in Eb mixolydian, Eb lydian dominant and Eb half-whole diminished.
Chords near Eb7
Change one note of Eb7 and you have Eb (drop the flat seventh), Ebmaj7 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), Ebm7 (the major third becomes a minor third), Ebadd9 (the flat seventh becomes a ninth), Eb6 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth) or Eb7sus4 (the major third becomes a fourth).
Eb7 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. Dominant seventh chords on every root.
On Eb7’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.