D#5 Chord on Guitar
D#5 = D# – A# (Root, Perfect 5th)
D#5 sits at the eleventh fret, made of D# and A#, using the same low-E-string-rooted shape that carries through every power chord on this list. It's often written as Eb5 in flat-oriented material, though guitar tab tends to favor the sharp spelling shown here.
Like all power chords, D#5 has no third and therefore no fixed major or minor identity, letting it sit comfortably under either quality of harmony. It shows up less often as a home-position riff chord than D5 or E5, since D#/Eb-rooted material is less common on guitar generally, but it appears regularly as a passing or connecting power chord in chromatic riff lines that slide between neighboring roots.
Fingerings
Barre (11th fret)
How to Practice It
At the eleventh fret the string tension is noticeably tighter and the frets narrower than in the lower positions covered earlier in this set, so D#5 is a reasonable chord for practicing accurate, light-touch fretting in the guitar's upper register, where excess pressure more easily causes the pitch to bend sharp. As always, the shape itself doesn't change — only its position on the neck does.
Common Progressions
- D#5 – G#5 – A#5 – D#5 (I – IV – V – I)
- D#5 – C#5 – B5 (a descending riff)
- E5 – D#5 – D5 (a chromatic power-chord slide)
- D#5 – A#5 – C5 (a rock-style move)
FAQ
- Does D#5 share any notes with E5, its neighbor one fret up?
- No — D# and A# are entirely different pitches from E and B, so sliding between the two shapes changes both notes at once rather than moving just one finger.
- Is D#5 the same as Eb5?
- Yes, identical pitches — Eb5 is the more common spelling in flat-key material, while D#5 is what most guitar tab and rock charts use.
- Why is the eleventh fret trickier than lower positions for this shape?
- The frets are physically closer together and the strings under more tension up there, so it takes a slightly lighter, more precise touch to avoid accidentally bending the pitch sharp compared to the wider spacing of lower frets.
- How does D#5 typically get used in a riff?
- Most often as a chromatic passing chord — sliding briefly through D#5 while moving between D5 and E5, for example — rather than as a song's primary, repeated power-chord root.
- Is there a lower-fret way to play D#5?
- Yes, rooting the same shape on the A string instead puts D#5 at the sixth fret, a more moderate position than the eleventh-fret low-E-string version.
- Does the eleventh-fret position limit how loud or resonant D#5 sounds compared to lower power chords?
- Somewhat — the shorter vibrating string length at higher frets naturally produces a tighter, slightly less booming tone than the same interval played near the nut, though under distortion the difference is far less noticeable than it would be on a clean tone.
- Why might a metal riff specifically choose D#5 as a home root?
- Some metal guitarists detune the whole instrument down a half step, which shifts what would otherwise be an easy open-string E5 riff down to sound like D#5 relative to standard pitch — in that context this shape functions as the tuned-down equivalent of the guitar's most common power chord.
- Is D#5 worth memorizing on its own, or is it enough to know the movable shape in general?
- Once the movable shape is solid at any one fret, D#5 requires no new learning beyond locating the eleventh fret — the value in naming it individually is mostly for recognizing it quickly in a chart or riff rather than treating it as a separate technical challenge.
- Is D#5/Eb5 ever the correct chord when a chart says Eb5 instead of D#5?
- Yes, always — the two labels point to the identical pitches and identical fretting, so a chart written with flats requires no adjustment beyond reading the different name for the same shape.
- How does D#5 sit relative to the D#-major and D#-minor barre chords covered earlier in this set?
- It occupies the same eleventh-fret position but drops whichever note supplies the major or minor third, giving the same kind of leaner, more aggressive texture the power-chord version always offers relative to its full-triad relatives.
Related: how chords are built, chord finder.