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E♭ dominant seventh chord on piano

Find the E♭ dominant seventh notes, inspect their piano positions, and compare inversions with an audible reference.

Interactive piano keyboardSelected notes: E♭4 · G4 · B♭4 · D♭5. Gold marks the root when one is known.C4D4E4F4G4A4B4C5D5C♯4E♭4F♯4G♯4B♭4D♭5
Root noteSelected tone

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Compare another chord

C Minor

C4 · E♭4 · G4

Notes and intervals

DegreeNotesSemitones
1E♭40
3G44
5B♭47
♭7D♭510

The notes and their roles

E♭ dominant seventh contains E♭, G, B♭ and D♭. From the root, the semitone offsets are 0, 4, 7, 10. The degree formula 1, 3, 5, ♭7 describes each member relative to the root, not its order in a particular voicing.

NoteRoleSemitones above root
E♭Root0
GMajor third4
B♭Perfect fifth7
D♭Minor seventh10

Read this shape accurately

First inspect the major-triad foundation of this seventh chord. E-flat and B-flat frame the natural G. The third uses the letter G, so an F-double-sharp spelling would hide the chord’s alternating E–G–B letters.

Hear the seventh

The seventh here is D♭. Keeping E♭ · G · B♭ fixed and changing only that note to D produces E♭ major seventh. Compare both at the same octave and volume so the one-note difference stays easy to hear.

A dominant-seventh chord is a chord quality. Calling it dominant does not, by itself, establish the key or prove that this chord is functioning as V in a progression.

Choose a bass note

The root-position octave example is E♭4 · G4 · B♭4 · D♭5. Inversions put a different member in the bass while retaining E♭ as the root. The table gives pitch-class order; move the leading notes up an octave as needed to keep each example ascending.

PositionNotes from the bassBass
Root positionE♭ · G · B♭ · D♭E♭
First inversionG · B♭ · D♭ · E♭G
Second inversionB♭ · D♭ · E♭ · GB♭
Third inversionD♭ · E♭ · G · B♭D♭

A short listening check

Play E♭ dominant seventh together, then as separate notes. Name the major third before looking at the display. Repeat in first inversion and check that G is the bass while E♭ remains the root.

  1. Choose the displayed root and quality in the chord explorer.
  2. Compare root position with one inversion at the same tempo.
  3. Save both examples in a named practice collection, or export a reference with note names.

Sources and methods