My Guitar Notes

Ebm7 — Eb minor seventh chord

A minor triad with a minor seventh added. The interval between the third and the seventh is a perfect fifth.

Symbol
Ebm7
Root
Eb
Quality
Minor seventh
Family
seventh
Notes
Eb Gb Bb Db
Degree formula
1 b3 5 b7
Semitones from the root
0 3 7 10
Distinct pitch classes
4
Interval structure
Stacked from the root: 3 semitones, 4 semitones, 3 semitones
Notation
Written m7 or min7. The chord on the second, third and sixth degrees of a major key, and the tonic of a minor key in jazz.
Key
Eb · Eb major / C minor key signature

Formula

The chord tones in order from the root, with the interval each one forms above it.

DegreeNoteSemitonesInterval from the root
1Eb0Perfect unison
b3Gb3Minor third
5Bb7Perfect fifth
b7Db10Minor seventh

Inversions

An inversion is the same set of notes with a different one in the bass. The last column gives the distance of each note above the bass note, in semitones.

InversionBass noteDegree in the bassNotes above the bassSemitones above the bass
root positionEb1Eb – Gb – Bb – Db0 3 7 10
first inversionGbb3Gb – Bb – Db – Eb0 4 7 9
second inversionBb5Bb – Db – Eb – Gb0 3 5 8
third inversionDbb7Db – Eb – Gb – Bb0 2 5 9

Playable voicings

These shapes were found by searching the fretboard of a standard-tuned guitar (E A D G B E) rather than copied from a chord book. The search allows every string to sound or to be muted, rejects any shape with a muted string between two sounding strings, rejects any shape whose fretted notes span more than four frets (a five-fret window), requires every chord tone to be present, and then sorts what remains with root-position shapes first and the most compact, lowest shapes next. The shapes shown are the first six of that ordering; other orderings are possible at the same frets.

#Shape (low string first)NotesDegreesBassSpan (frets)Sounding strings
111-9-11-11-11-9Eb Gb Db Gb Bb Db1 b3 b7 b3 5 b7Eb26
211-9-11-11-11-11Eb Gb Db Gb Bb Eb1 b3 b7 b3 5 1Eb26
311-13-11-11-11-11Eb Bb Db Gb Bb Eb1 5 b7 b3 5 1Eb26
411-9-8-8-11-9Eb Gb Bb Eb Bb Db1 b3 5 1 5 b7Eb36
511-9-8-11-11-9Eb Gb Bb Gb Bb Db1 b3 5 b3 5 b7Eb36
611-9-11-8-11-9Eb Gb Db Eb Bb Db1 b3 b7 1 5 b7Eb36

Shape numbers run from the lowest string to the highest, so the left-hand number is the sixth string (low E) in standard tuning. Multiple shapes are listed because a chord can be voiced several ways, and because a lower position is not always the better sounding one.

Related chords and scales

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