Chords in the Key of Eb Minor

What are the chords in Eb minor?

Take the Eb minor scale — Eb F Gb Ab Bb Cb Db — and build a chord on each note by stacking every other scale note on top of it. Those seven chords are the chords in the key:

• Ebm — i, minor, built on Eb
• Fdim — ii°, diminished, built on F
• Gb — III, major, built on Gb
• Abm — iv, minor, built on Ab
• Bbm — v, minor, built on Bb
• Cb — VI, major, built on Cb
• Db — VII, major, built on Db

The pattern of qualities is the same in every minor key — only the letters change. Learn the numerals and you can find the chords of any key in seconds.

Which chords to play first

Ebm, Abm and Bbm — the i, iv and v — carry most songs in Eb minor. Add Cb (the VI) and Db (the VII) for the classic minor-key turnaround.

• Bittersweet Loop — 6m–4–1–5 — Ebm – Cb – Gb – Db. Heard in Zombie, Numb.
• Andalusian Cadence — 6m–5–4–3 — Ebm – Db – Cb – Bb. Heard in Hit the Road Jack, Stray Cat Strut.
• Dorian Vamp — 6m–2 — Ebm – Ab. Heard in Oye Como Va, Evil Ways.

The same chords as 7ths

Stack one more third on each and you get the seventh chords of Eb minor: Ebm7, Fm7♭5, Gbmaj7, Abm7, Bbm7, Cbmaj7, Db7. Same roots, same function, a jazz and soul colour. The v as a dominant seventh (Bbm7) is the one that pulls hardest back to Ebm.

Eb minor and F# major share every chord

F# major uses the same seven notes as Eb minor, so it has the same seven chords — the relative major. What changes is which chord is home: Ebm in Eb minor, Gb in F# major. A song can drift between the two without changing a single chord shape.

• The chords of F# major, with their own numerals
• The Eb minor scale on the neck

How to practice the chords of Eb minor

1. Play Ebm – Abm – Bbm – Ebm slowly, one strum per chord, until the changes are clean.
2. Open the chord builder in this key and turn on Smooth Voice Leading — it re-fingers each change so your hand barely moves.
3. Then play the scale over the chords. Every note of Eb minor fits every chord above, which is why the scale and the key are the same thing seen from two sides.