Where to capo for Eb Aeolian
Put the capo at fret 6 and play Eb Aeolian using A Aeolian shapes. That is the easiest of the eight positions ranked below, and it is what most players reach for. Against playing Eb Aeolian open, it drops the mean difficulty of the key's seven chords from 5.6 to 3.4 and gains 16 ringing open strings.
You want Eb. Capo 6 and play in A.
All eight positions, ranked
Each row transposes Eb Aeolian down by that many frets to find the shapes your hand would actually make, then scores the best voicing of all seven chords — fewer fingers, less stretch, closer to the nut, fewer muted strings. Lower is easier. Standard tuning (E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4).
| Capo | Shapes you play | Open strings | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | A Aeolian | 19 | 3.4 |
| 4 | Cb Aeolian | 19 | 3.9 |
| 2 | Db Aeolian | 10 | 4.4 |
| 1 | D Aeolian | 15 | 4.7 |
| 7 | Ab Aeolian | 8 | 5.2 |
| None | Eb Aeolian | 3 | 5.6 |
| 3 | C Aeolian | 4 | 5.6 |
| 5 | Bb Aeolian | 0 | 6.3 |
What you are playing
The seven chords of Eb Aeolian are Ebm, Fdim, Gb, Abm, Bbm, Cb, Db — the ones the ranking above is scored against. Their diagrams are on the Eb Aeolian key page.