B♭ major chord
Home in B♭ major, and the V that pulls toward E♭.
- How it sounds
- Bright and settled. B♭ to D is four frets, and that gap gives it its warmth, while F on top holds it steady. There’s no open grip. The lowest of its five grips is the A form, at the 1st fret.
- Where it lives
- The I of B♭ major, the IV of F major and the V of E♭ major. In B♭ major it’s home; in E♭ major it pulls the song back to E♭. In E♭ harmonic minor it’s the V, and its third, D, is the raised seventh that leads back to E♭. Jazz, big band and brass bands. A trumpet, clarinet or tenor sax reading a C sounds a B♭, so music written for them often sits in B♭.
Voicings across the neck
B♭, D and F can be played in five places on the neck, each built from a different open chord shape. Neighbouring forms share a root, so each one hands over to the next, and together they run from the 1st to the 13th fret before the cycle starts again. The E form at the 6th fret is the fullest barre, all six strings. The D form at the 8th uses only the top four, which keeps it small and bright and easy to hear over a band.
- High E string: F at fret 1
- B string: D at fret 3
- G string: B♭ at fret 3
- D string: F at fret 3
- A string: B♭ at fret 1
- Low E string: not played
- High E string: B♭ at fret 6
- B string: D at fret 3
- G string: B♭ at fret 3
- D string: F at fret 3
- A string: D at fret 5
- Low E string: B♭ at fret 6
- High E string: B♭ at fret 6
- B string: F at fret 6
- G string: D at fret 7
- D string: B♭ at fret 8
- A string: F at fret 8
- Low E string: B♭ at fret 6
- High E string: D at fret 10
- B string: B♭ at fret 11
- G string: F at fret 10
- D string: B♭ at fret 8
- A string: not played
- Low E string: not played
- High E string: D at fret 10
- B string: B♭ at fret 11
- G string: F at fret 10
- D string: D at fret 12
- A string: B♭ at fret 13
- Low E string: not played
Formula
| Intervals | Notes | Semitones |
|---|---|---|
| R · M3 · P5: what each interval does in a chord | B♭ · D · F | 4 + 3 |
B♭ major is a root, a major third and a perfect fifth: B♭, D and F, taken from the B♭ major scale by skipping every other note. Four then three is what makes a chord major. Turn the gaps round, three then four, and you get B♭ minor: B♭, D♭, F.
In these keys and scales
B♭ major turns up in twelve scales on the site, and the job it does depends on the scale. In B♭ major it’s the I, home. In E♭ major and E♭ harmonic minor it’s the V, the chord that pulls back home. In G minor it’s the III, the relative major inside the minor key, and as the VI of D minor it’s a warm step away from home. The numeral beside each scale names the job, and the name opens that scale’s page.
| Family | Scales |
|---|---|
| Major | |
| Natural minor | |
| Harmonic minor | |
| Melodic minor | |
| Pentatonic |
Progressions
A lot of progressions in B♭ major start on B♭, and nearly all of them come back to it. In I–IV–V the other two chords keep returning to it. In I–V–vi–IV it opens the loop, and E♭ at the end leads back round to it. V–I turns it the other way: there B♭ is the V, and it resolves to E♭.