B Flat Guitar Chord
B flat opens here as x13331, the A major shape barred at the first fret: the index finger lies flat across five strings while the ring finger bars three more at the third fret. It is one fret below B major and harder than it, because the strings are stiffest next to the nut. The easier shape beside it, B♭ easy at xx3331, plays only the top four strings, so the ring finger bars three strings at the third fret, the index takes the first string, and no finger has to hold five strings down. The page opens on the B and B♭ set, which also holds B♭7, B♭ minor and B♭maj7. One thing to know before reading the note names: the chart names every note with a sharp, so B♭ reads A# under each diagram. They are the same pitch under two names, and the chord is the same chord.
B♭ major · x13331
notes A# F A# D F
lowest note A# on string 5
moveable shape, frets 1 to 3, 5 strings sounding, 1 muted
The A shape barred at the first fret, one fret below B major: the index bars five strings, the ring finger bars three at the third.
Common questions
- How do you play a B flat chord on guitar?
- The full shape is x13331, read from the sixth string: leave the sixth string out, press the fifth at the first fret, the fourth, third and second at the third fret, and the first at the first fret. In practice that is the index finger barring all five strings at the first fret and the ring finger barring three strings at the third, which the diagram draws as two bars. The notes are B♭ F B♭ D F, which the chart writes as A# F A# D F because it names notes with sharps. Written as guitar tab, first string on the top line, it is the column 1, 3, 3, 3, 1 with the sixth string left out.
- What is the easiest way to play B flat?
- Play only the top four strings: xx3331. The ring finger bars the fourth, third and second strings at the third fret and the index presses the first string at the first fret, so nothing barres five strings. It sounds F B♭ D F, all three notes of B flat major, and it loses only the low B♭ on the fifth string. Strum from the fourth string down. If the ring finger cannot flatten across three strings, use the middle, ring and little fingers, one on each, instead. Once that is steady, the full barre is the same shape with the index laid flat.
- Why does the chart write A# instead of B flat?
- Because A# and B♭ are the same pitch, one fret above A, and the chart follows one rule for every note on the page: name it with a sharp. A songbook in the key of F writes B♭, because that key is spelled with flats, but the chart does not carry a key for each chord, and a rule that is right for some chords and silently wrong for others would be worse. So the B♭ major diagram reads A# F A# D F, and the chord is exactly the one the songbook means. In Spanish and Portuguese the flat sign is called bemol, so the same chord is also written B bemol, or si bemol in solfège.
- What about B flat 7, B flat minor and B flat major 7?
- All three are in the B and B♭ set this page opens on, each as a barre at the first fret. B♭7 is the A7 shape barred there and sounds A# F G# D F, adding A♭, which the chart writes G#. B♭ minor is the A minor shape barred there and sounds A# F A# C# F, with D♭, written C#, as its minor third. B♭maj7 lowers the third string of the B♭ barre by a fret and sounds A# F A D F, adding A, the major seventh. Each diagram shows the fingers, so the step from one to the next is visible.
- Is B flat the same as A sharp on guitar?
- Yes, on a guitar they are the same frets and the same sound. The fifth string at the first fret is both A# and B♭; which name a song uses depends on its key, not on where you put your fingers. So an A# chord in a chord sheet is played with exactly the shapes on this page, x13331 for the barre and xx3331 for the easier four strings.
Every diagram is a named fingering with its own frets, fingers and muted strings, and the note names under it are computed from standard tuning. It cannot know your tuning or the reach of your hand, and a chord has more than one shape: these are the common ones, not the only ones.