Abm7b5 guitar chord
The standard grips this chord is usually shown with.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Abm7b5 — 2nd inversion
Abm7b5 is Ab, Cb, D and Gb — Abm7 with the fifth lowered a semitone.
It sounds hollow, and unmistakably going somewhere. It walks straight into an altered dominant, which is where you will nearly always meet it.
Pre-dominant — the ii of a minor key.
Abm7b5 notes and formula
| Ab | Cb | D | Gb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | ♭7 |
Also written Abø, Abø7, Abm7-5, Abm7(b5) or Ab half diminished. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abm7b5
Abm7b5 in 2nd inversion puts Ebb in the bass instead of Ab, the 5th 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.
2 of Abm7b5’s 8 common shapes do this:xx0102x-x-12-13-12-14
Play Abm7b5 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (Db) or the b13 (Fb).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- xx0102, open position, Ebb, 2nd inversion, top note Gb, 2 open strings
- 4x443x, 3rd fret, Ab, root position, top note D, barred
- 4xx432, 2nd fret, Ab, root position, top note Gb, all fretted
- 456474, 4th fret, Ab, root position, top note Ab, barred
- xx6777, 6th fret, Ab, root position, top note Cb, barred
- x-11-9-11-9-10, 9th fret, Ab, root position, top note D, all fretted
- x-11-12-11-12-x, 11th fret, Ab, root position, top note Cb, all fretted
- x-x-12-13-12-14, 12th fret, Ebb, 2nd inversion, top note Gb, all fretted
How to use Abm7b5
Abm7b5 is the ii of Gb minor, which is where it is nearly always found: half-diminished, then an altered dominant, then the minor tonic.
In which keys. Every note of Abm7b5 belongs to F# minor (the ii°, the supertonic) and A major (the vii°, the leading tone).
What to play over Abm7b5
Every note of Abm7b5 is in Ab blues, Ab locrian, Ab altered and Ab half-whole diminished.
Chords near Abm7b5
Change one note of Abm7b5 and you have Abdim (drop the flat seventh), Abdim7 (the flat seventh becomes the diminished seventh), Abm7 (the flat fifth becomes the fifth), AbmMaj7b5 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh) or Ab7b5 (the minor third becomes the major third).
Abm7b5 is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.