What notes are in an E♭ minor chord?

E♭ minor contains three notes: E♭ (the root), G♭ (the minor third), and B♭ (the perfect fifth).

Is E♭ minor the same as D♯ minor?

Yes, enharmonically — same three pitches. E♭ minor has six flats; D♯ minor has six sharps. Composers choose between them based on surrounding harmony.

How do you play E♭ minor on guitar?

Most commonly an A-shape barre at the 6th fret: index finger across strings 5–1 on the 6th fret, ring finger on the 8th fret of the 4th string, pinky on the 8th fret of the 3rd string, middle finger on the 7th fret of the 2nd string.

What's the relative major of E♭ minor?

G♭ major — both keys share the same six-flat signature. E♭ minor is built on the 6th scale degree of G♭ major.

Eb minor chord — notes, intervals, and practice

E♭ minor is a six-flat key — a near-extreme on the flat side of the circle of fifths. The chord contains E♭, G♭, and B♭. The key shows up most often as a passing tonality in chromatic music or as the relative minor of G♭ major. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier devotes a prelude and fugue to E♭ minor in each book; Tchaikovsky used it for parts of the Pathétique Symphony.

Intervals

The Eb minor chord stacks two thirds on the root. Each interval and its size in semitones:

Eb→Gbminor 3rd3 semitones
Gb→Bbmajor 3rd4 semitones
Eb→Bbperfect 5th7 semitones

On the keyboard

Each note of the Eb minor chord highlighted on a piano. Pitch class is what matters — any octave works.

On the guitar

One voicing of the Eb minor chord on a six-string guitar fretboard.

Common mistakes

Two notes carry flats: E♭ and G♭ in the chord, plus B♭ as the fifth — three of the six flats in the key signature. The most common error is reading G♭ as G natural, which produces an E♭ major chord. On guitar, E♭ minor is almost always a 6th-fret A-shape barre or an 11th-fret E-shape barre. The six-flat key signature is dense enough that hand-writing the flats (B E A D G C in order) before reading is normal practice.

In context

E♭ minor is the i chord in E♭ minor, the vi chord in G♭ major (the relative-major), the ii in D♭ major, and the iii in C♭ major (theoretical). Composers occasionally use E♭ minor for its specific dark colour — Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony No. 6 has extensive E♭ minor passages. The enharmonic D♯ minor (six sharps) covers the same harmonic territory in sharp-key music.

Drill it

The Eb minor chord is one of 48 in the Chord Trainer. Open the full trainer to practice it alongside related chords with timing and best-time tracking.

Open the Chord Trainer →Or try today's Etudle puzzle

Frequently asked

What notes are in an E♭ minor chord?: E♭ minor contains three notes: E♭ (the root), G♭ (the minor third), and B♭ (the perfect fifth).
Is E♭ minor the same as D♯ minor?: Yes, enharmonically — same three pitches. E♭ minor has six flats; D♯ minor has six sharps. Composers choose between them based on surrounding harmony.
How do you play E♭ minor on guitar?: Most commonly an A-shape barre at the 6th fret: index finger across strings 5–1 on the 6th fret, ring finger on the 8th fret of the 4th string, pinky on the 8th fret of the 3rd string, middle finger on the 7th fret of the 2nd string.
What's the relative major of E♭ minor?: G♭ major — both keys share the same six-flat signature. E♭ minor is built on the 6th scale degree of G♭ major.