Eb9b5 guitar chord
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About Eb9b5 — rootless voicings
Eb9b5 keeps the natural 9th of , but lowers its 5th to Bbb♭5: Eb, G, Bbb, Db and F.
Keep the flat 5th audible. Eb9b5 is not with a flat 9th; the 9th is still natural.
Also written Eb9(b5), Eb9-5 or Eb9♭5.
What is a rootless voicing
The bassist has the root, and the guide tones imply it anyway. The freed finger adds a tension. Playing solo, keep the root and drop something else.
How to use Eb9b5
Eb9b5 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at — harder than a plain seventh does. A plain dominant has two voices a semitone from home; an altered one has four, because every altered tone is also sitting a semitone from a note of Ab. More voices leaning the same way is all "more tension" means here.
In a phrase:→→
The ii–V–I of Ab.
Voice by voice, Eb9b5 → . 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords. Those semitones are what the ear follows; the rest is the chord rearranging itself underneath.
| In Eb9b5 | Moves | In Ab |
|---|---|---|
| Eb, the root | stays where it is | Eb, the fifth |
| G, the major third | rises a semitone | Ab, the root |
| A, the flat fifth | falls a semitone | Ab, the root |
| Db, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | C, the major third |
| F, the ninth | falls a whole tone | Eb, the fifth |
What to play over Eb9b5
Useful scales
- +B
Contains Eb9b5 and adds sharp fifth.
- +BbC
Adds fifth and thirteenth, for a dominant sharp-eleventh color.
Chords near Eb9b5
Remove a note
Change one note
3rd inversion 3rd inversion
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.