E♭ diminished arpeggio on drop D guitar

E♭ · G♭ · B𝄫

The course explains what this page shows in Lesson 9 · The triad.

The notes

  1. E♭1
  2. G♭♭3
  3. B𝄫♭5

The E♭ diminished arpeggio is E♭, G♭, B𝄫.

You may also see it called 1 ♭3 ♭5.

On the staff

E♭F♭G♭A♭B𝄫C♭D♭E♭

On a treble staff, the E♭ diminished arpeggio is written E♭ G♭ B𝄫.

The solid notes are the E♭ diminished arpeggio. The pale notes are the rest of E♭ locrian, the larger scale it is carved out of, so you can see which notes it leaves out.

Why the E♭ diminished arpeggio has these flats

  1. E♭1
  2. T+S
  3. G♭♭3
  4. T+S
  5. B𝄫♭5
  6. 6
  7. E♭8

A scale is a pattern of steps, and this one is T+S T+S 6: a tone and a half, a tone and a half, 6, and so on. T+S stands for a tone and a half, which is three semitones. 6 stands for a step of six semitones. The pattern is what gives E♭ diminished its sound, and it stays the same whichever note you start on.

This scale has only three notes, so it does not use every letter. It is built on E♭ locrian, and the notes it shares are spelled the same way as they are there.

The pattern still does not fit the plain letters. If you walk the pattern up from E♭, two letters cannot keep up:

  • G♭ — the flat third. The pattern needs a tone and a half from E♭, but E♭ to G is only 4, so G has to fall to G♭.
  • B𝄫 — the flat fifth. The pattern needs a tone and a half from G♭, but G♭ to B is only 5, so B has to fall to B𝄫.

None of those accidentals was a choice. Once you pick the note to start on, the pattern decides the rest, and a key signature is a record of the result.

The E♭ diminished arpeggio is written with E♭, G♭ and B𝄫. E♭ has its accidental because that is the key, and the other notes need theirs because the T+S T+S 6 pattern of steps cannot be spelled from E♭ with plain letters.

The pattern of steps is the part of a scale that never changes. The letter names take sharps or flats to fit that pattern, and a key signature is a record of those sharps or flats.

On the piano

CD♭2F♭FG♭5B𝄫♭6C♭CD♭2F♭FG♭5B𝄫♭6C♭CD♭2F♭FG♭5B𝄫♭6C♭CD♭2F♭FG♭5B𝄫♭6C♭C♭7D♭1E♭♭3G♭4A♭A♯♭7D♭1E♭♭3G♭4A♭A♯♭7D♭1E♭♭3G♭4A♭A♯♭7D♭1E♭♭3G♭4A♭A♯C2C3C4C5C6

The keyboard shows the same three notes as a shape you can see. The coloured keys are the E♭ diminished arpeggio, the pale keys are the rest of E♭ locrian, and you can click any key to hear it.

E♭ diminished arpeggio on the whole neck

DADGBE123456789101112131415E♭1G♭♭3B𝄫♭5E♭1B𝄫♭5E♭1G♭♭3B𝄫♭5E♭1G♭♭3B𝄫♭5E♭1B𝄫♭5E♭1G♭♭3B𝄫♭5E♭1G♭♭3B𝄫♭5G♭♭3B𝄫♭5E♭1G♭♭3

34 notes of the E♭ diminished arpeggio are marked across six strings.

This is every place the notes of the E♭ diminished arpeggio fall on the drop D guitar, with each note's name and its scale degree. The roots are marked so you can find your bearings.

Position by position

Position 1 — starts on the 1
DADGBE1234561♭31♭3♭51♭3♭5
Position 2 — starts on the ♭3
DADGBE456789♭3♭51♭3♭511♭3♭5
Position 3 — starts on the ♭5
DADGBE789101112♭5♭3♭51♭3♭3♭51

The E♭ diminished arpeggio has three playable positions, at frets 1–5, 4–8 and 7–11.

Each shape starts on a different degree of the scale and fits inside five frets, so your hand can play all of it without moving.

One climb up the neck

DADGBE123456781♭3♭51♭3♭51♭3♭5TAB140142475

The climb runs from fret 0 to fret 7 and plays nine notes.

This is one path from the lowest root to the top of the neck, and it plays each note once, never on two strings. It takes a different number of notes on different strings. The widest stretch on any one string is three frets.