E♭ major 7th arpeggio on 8-string guitar

E♭ · G · B♭ · D

The course explains what this page shows in Lesson 13 · Sevenths.

The notes

  1. E♭1
  2. G3
  3. B♭5
  4. D7

The E♭ major 7th arpeggio is E♭, G, B♭, D.

You may also see it called 1 3 5 7.

On the staff

E♭FGA♭B♭CDE♭

On a treble staff, the E♭ major 7th arpeggio is written E♭ G B♭ D.

The solid notes are the E♭ major 7th arpeggio. The pale notes are the rest of E♭ major, the larger scale it is carved out of, so you can see which notes it leaves out.

Why the E♭ major 7th arpeggio has these flats

  1. E♭1
  2. 4
  3. G3
  4. T+S
  5. B♭5
  6. 4
  7. D7
  8. S
  9. E♭8

An arpeggio is a pattern of steps too, and this one is 4 T+S 4 S: two tones, a tone and a half, two tones, and so on. S stands for a semitone, the distance of one fret or one key. T+S stands for a tone and a half, which is three semitones. 4 stands for a step of four semitones. The pattern is what gives E♭ major 7th its sound, and it stays the same whichever note you start on.

This arpeggio has only four notes, so it does not use every letter. It is built on E♭ major, 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♭, one letter cannot keep up:

  • B♭ — the fifth. The pattern needs a tone and a half from G, but G to B is already two tones, which is too far, so B has to fall to B♭.

That accidental was not 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♭ major 7th arpeggio is written with E♭ and B♭. E♭ has its accidental because that is the key, and the other note needs one because the 4 T+S 4 S 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

6C7DE2F3GAB6C7DE2F3GAB6C7DE2F3GAB6C7DE2F3GAB6C7DE2F3GAB6CD♭1E♭G♭4A♭5B♭D♭1E♭G♭4A♭5B♭D♭1E♭G♭4A♭5B♭D♭1E♭G♭4A♭5B♭D♭1E♭G♭4A♭5B♭C1C2C3C4C5C6

The keyboard shows the same four notes as a shape you can see. The colored keys are the E♭ major 7th arpeggio, and the pale keys are the rest of E♭ major.

E♭ major 7th arpeggio on the whole neck

F♯BEADGBE123456789101112131415G3B♭5D7E♭1G3D7E♭1G3B♭5D7G3B♭5D7E♭1G3B♭5D7E♭1G3B♭5D7E♭1G3B♭5D7E♭1G3B♭5D7E♭1G3B♭5D7E♭1G3B♭5D7G3B♭5D7E♭1G3

42 notes of the E♭ major 7th arpeggio are marked across eight strings.

This is every place the notes of the E♭ major 7th arpeggio fall on the 8-string 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 3
F♯BEADGBE1234563571357135713
Position 2 — starts on the 5
F♯BEADGBE45678957135713571135
Position 3 — starts on the 7
F♯BEADGBE8910111213713571357133571
Position 4 — starts on the 1
F♯BEADGBE910111213141357135713571

The E♭ major 7th arpeggio has four playable positions, at frets 1–5, 4–8, 8–12 and 9–13.

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

F♯BEADGBE910111213141516171819202122231357135713571357TAB9131115111513171317151916201822

The climb runs from fret 9 to fret 22 and plays sixteen 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 two notes on every string. The widest stretch on any one string is four frets.

The words on this page were written with the help of AI and may contain a mistake. Its diagrams are drawn by Everyfret’s own software. How Everyfret is made