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E flat minor chord

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

The short answer

The notes of the E flat minor chord are E flat, G flat and B flat.

On the keys

Keyboard with E flat, G flat and B flat markedE♭G♭B♭

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

On the staff

Treble and bass staves showing the E flat minor chord in root position: E flat, G flat and B flat

The E flat minor 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 E flat minor chord has a root position and two inversions, and all three still sound as E flat minor.

  1. Root positionE♭ G♭ B♭right hand 1 3 5, left hand 5 3 1
  2. First inversionG♭ B♭ E♭right hand 1 2 5, left hand 5 3 1
  3. Second inversionB♭ E♭ G♭right hand 1 3 5, left hand 5 2 1

Keep going

E flat minor scale

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

G flat major chord

G flat major, written here as F sharp major: the same keys on the piano, spelled differently. The relative major of E flat minor.

E flat major chord

Same root, one note different: the third moves a semitone up.

Questions

How do you build an E flat minor chord?

Start on E flat, add the minor third (three semitones) above it, which is G flat, then the perfect fifth above the root (seven semitones), which is B flat.

How many inversions does an E flat minor chord have?

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

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

Play it in the app