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A flat major chord

The three notes, the three ways to stack them and which fingers to use.

The short answer

The notes of the A flat major chord are A flat, C and E flat.

On the keys

Keyboard with A flat, C and E flat markedCA♭E♭

Yellow is the root, the note the chord is named after.

On the staff

Treble and bass staves showing the A flat major chord in root position: A flat, C and E flat

The A flat major chord in root position. The treble clef is the right hand; the bass clef is the same chord an octave lower for the left.

Inversions

An inversion keeps the same three notes and changes which one is lowest. The A flat major chord has a root position and two inversions, and all three still sound as A flat major.

  1. Root positionA♭ C E♭right hand 1 3 5, left hand 5 3 1
  2. First inversionC E♭ A♭right hand 1 2 5, left hand 5 3 1
  3. Second inversionE♭ A♭ Cright hand 1 3 5, left hand 5 2 1

Keep going

A flat major scale

The scale this chord is built on: A flat, B flat, C, D flat, E flat, F and G.

F minor chord

The relative minor shares the same key signature as A flat major.

A flat minor chord

A flat minor, written here as G sharp minor: the same keys on the piano, spelled differently. Same root, one note different.

Questions

How do you build an A flat major chord?

Start on A flat, add the major third (four semitones) above it, which is C, then the perfect fifth above the root (seven semitones), which is E flat.

How many inversions does an A flat major chord have?

Two: first inversion puts C at the bottom and second inversion puts E flat at the bottom. With root position that makes three ways to play the same chord.

Practise A flat major and the chords around it in PlayPiano, a piano practice app for iPhone and iPad.

Play it in the app