Ebmaj13 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 Ebmaj13 — drop 2 voicings
Ebmaj13 is Eb, G, Bb, D, F and C — Ebmaj9 with the thirteenth on top, and the eleventh left out.
It sounds full and wide open. Six notes into four fingers means something goes: keep the third, the seventh and the thirteenth.
Ebmaj13 notes and formula
| Eb | G | Bb | D | F | C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 |
Tonic — the major sound with most of the scale showing.
Also written EbM13, EbΔ13 or Eb major 13. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ebmaj13
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.
Ebmaj13 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, D 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 x3103x — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 4 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x31133 | 1st fret | C, 13th in the bass | G | barred |
| x3103x | open position | C, 13th in the bass | D | 1 open string |
| x65533 | 3rd fret | Eb, root position | G | all fretted |
| x63533 | 3rd fret | Eb, root position | G | barred |
| x66788 | 6th fret | Eb, root position | C | all fretted |
| 11-10-10-10-11-10 | 10th fret | Eb, root position | D | barred |
| 11-11-12-12-13-11 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 8 drop 3, 25 rootless and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Ebmaj13, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the #11 (A).
How to use Ebmaj13
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Ebmaj13 is Fm7 to Bb7 — the ii and the V of Eb — and Bb7 shares its third and seventh with Fm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Ebmaj13 belongs to C minor (the ♭III), Eb major (the I, the tonic), G minor (the ♭VI) and Bb major (the IV, the subdominant).
What to play over Ebmaj13
Every note of Ebmaj13 is in Eb major and Eb lydian.
Chords near Ebmaj13
Change one note of Ebmaj13 and you have Ebmaj9 (drop the sixth), Ebmaj11 (the sixth becomes a fourth), Eb69 (drop the major seventh) or Eb13 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh).
Ebmaj13 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Ebmaj13’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.