About Ebm — triad voicings
Ebm is Eb, Gb and Bb — Eb with the third lowered a semitone.
It sounds darker than a major triad, and just as settled. The i of a minor key, and the vi, ii or iii of a major one.
Ebm notes and formula
| Eb | Gb | Bb |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 |
Tonic — minor chords rest as readily as major ones.
Also written Ebmin, Eb- or Eb minor. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ebm
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.
Ebm has 44 of them, on the bottom three strings, the bottom four strings, the top three strings, the top four strings, the high-middle three, the middle four strings, the low-middle three, 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, Gb in the bass and Bb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Gb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
6 of them sit on the bottom 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 xx1342 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Ebm uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 2 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx1342 | 1st fret | Eb, root position | Gb | all fretted |
| xx4342 | 2nd fret | Gb, 1st inversion | Gb | all fretted |
| x6434x | 3rd fret | Eb, root position | Eb | all fretted |
| x68876 | 6th fret | Eb, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x9887x | 7th fret | Gb, 1st inversion | Gb | all fretted |
| 11-9-8-8-x-11 | 8th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | all fretted |
| 11-13-13-11-11-11 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | barred |
| x-x-13-11-11-11 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | barred |
How to use Ebm
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Ebm is Fm7♭5 to Bb7♭9: the ii and the V of Eb minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Ebm belongs to C# major (the ii), Eb minor (the i), F# major (the vi), Ab minor (the v), Bb minor (the iv) and B major (the iii).
What to play over Ebm
Every note of Ebm is in Eb minor pentatonic, Eb blues, Eb dorian, Eb natural minor and Eb phrygian.
Chords near Ebm
Change one note of Ebm and you have Eb (the minor third becomes a major third), Ebdim (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Ebsus2 (the minor third becomes a ninth), Ebsus4 (the minor third becomes a fourth), Ebm6 (add the sixth) or Ebm7 (add the flat seventh).
Ebm is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Ebm’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.