Ab9b5 guitar chord
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About Ab9b5 — 3rd inversion
Ab9b5 keeps the natural 9th of , but lowers its 5th to Ebb♭5: Ab, C, Ebb, Gb and Bb.
Keep the flat 5th audible. Ab9b5 is not with a flat 9th; the 9th is still natural.
Also written Ab9(b5), Ab9-5 or Ab9♭5.
What 3rd inversion means
Ab9b5 in 3rd inversion puts Gb in the bass instead of Ab, the 7th of the chord. The notes are the same; what changes is what the bass line does, which is most of why you would reach for it — it lets the lowest voice move by step where the root would have jumped.
One of Ab9b5’s 8 shapes does this:xx4536
How to use Ab9b5
Ab9b5 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at — harder than a plain seventh does. A plain dominant has two voices a semitone from home; an altered one has four, because every altered tone is also sitting a semitone from a note of Db. More voices leaning the same way is all "more tension" means here.
What to play over Ab9b5
Useful scales
- +E
Contains Ab9b5 and adds sharp fifth.
- +EbF
Adds fifth and thirteenth, for a dominant sharp-eleventh color.
Chords near Ab9b5
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3rd inversion 3rd inversion 3rd inversion 3rd inversion
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.