Ab is Ab, C and Eb. The is the note that makes the triad major.
uses the instead. To hear the difference, raise that note one fret and let become Ab.
The minor third rises by one fret to become the major third. Every other note stays the same.
The same half step gives Ab an important job in a minor key. It can lead to Dbm, with its 3rd rising one fret to the new root.
Also written Abmaj, AbM or Ab major.
The chord a minor scale builds on its fifth degree is minor, but Ab is what gets played there. Its major third is the leading tone, a half step below the root of C#m; without it the chord doesn’t sound like a dominant.
Listen for: The leading tone rises a half step to the root of the i. On the minor v the same string is a whole step below it, and the pull is gone.
Ab is the IV of Eb, which is the IV of Bb: two plagal steps in a row, each a fourth up. The same pair of neighbour notes falls in each step, a rock staple since the mid-sixties.
Listen for: One voice steps down twice, a half step and then a whole step, from the flat seventh of the key to its fifth.
Heard in“Gloria”“I Can’t Explain”“Hey Jude” (coda)
In which keys. Every note of Ab belongs to C minor, C# major, Eb major, F minor, Ab major and Bb minor.
Contains Ab and adds second and sixth.
Contains Ab and adds second, fourth, sixth and major seventh.
Contains Ab and adds second, sharp eleventh, sixth and major seventh.
Adds second, fourth, sixth and flat seventh. The flat seventh pushes the sound toward a dominant chord.
Adds second, sharp eleventh, sixth and flat seventh, for a dominant sharp-eleventh color.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.
Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.