Bb5

Bb5 is Bb and F, a power chord. The shape this page opens on is written x13xxx, lowest string first.

Note by note. Bb is the root and F is the fifth.

Also written Bb(no 3rd) or Bb power chord. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.

There are 3 common shapes for Bb5 on the guitar, and 25 derived voicings in the triad family.

One note away. Change a single note of Bb5 and you have Bb (with one note added), Bbm (with one note added), Bbsus2 (with one note added) or Bbsus4 (with one note added).

In which keys. Every note of Bb5 belongs to C minor (the ♭VII), C# major (the vi), D minor (the ♭VI), Eb major (the V), Eb minor (the v), F major (the IV), F minor (the iv), F# major (the iii), G minor (the ♭III), Ab major (the ii), Bb major (the I) and Bb minor (the i).

The common shapes, written lowest string first: x13xxx, 688xxx, x-13-15-x-x-x.

Under the hand. None of the shapes for Bb5 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. None of them needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.

Triad. Three notes across one string set. Bb5 has x133xx, 113xxx, 1133xx, 688xxx, x-8-8-10-x-x, x-13-15-15-x-x, 13-13-15-x-x-x, 13-13-15-15-x-x.

What kind of chord this is. Bb5 is a suspended chord — root and fifth, with a second or fourth where the third would be — or nothing at all. suspended and power chords on every root, and what they are for.

The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.