Guitar chords in the key of Eb minor

The seven chords of Eb minor are Ebm, Fdim, Gb, Abm, Bbm, Cb, Db. Each one has a job in the key, and each tends towards particular chords next.

• Ebm, the tonic of Eb minor. Usually goes to Abm or Bbm: the departure, carrying the flat 6th with it.
• Fdim, the supertonic of Eb minor. Usually goes to Bbm: roots falling a fifth: the minor key’s ii–V.
• Gb, the mediant of Eb minor. Usually goes to Cb or Db: a fourth up inside the relative major.
• Abm, the subdominant of Eb minor. Usually goes to Bbm: subdominant into dominant, the cadence the minor key borrows from major.
• Bbm, the dominant of Eb minor. Usually goes to Ebm: the leading tone rises into the minor tonic.
• Cb, the submediant of Eb minor. Usually goes to Db or Abm: the Aeolian cadence: ♭VI–♭VII–i closes the key with no dominant at all.
• Db, the subtonic of Eb minor. Usually goes to Ebm or Gb: a whole tone into the tonic, no leading tone, so it arrives rather than resolves.

Where a chord tends to go follows Walter Piston’s table of usual root progressions in Harmony (W. W. Norton); see the sources.