Bm7b5 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 Bm7b5 — 2nd inversion
Bm7b5 is B, D, F and A — Bm7 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.
Bm7b5 notes and formula
| B | D | F | A |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | ♭7 |
Also written Bø, Bø7, Bm7-5, Bm7(b5) or B half diminished. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bm7b5
Bm7b5 in 2nd inversion puts F in the bass instead of B, 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.
One of Bm7b5’s 8 common shapes does this:xx3435
Play Bm7b5 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (E) or the b13 (G).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x2323x, 2nd fret, B, root position, top note D, all fretted
- xx3435, 3rd fret, F, 2nd inversion, top note A, all fretted
- 7xx765, 5th fret, B, root position, top note A, all fretted
- 7x776x, 6th fret, B, root position, top note F, barred
- 7-8-9-7-10-7, 7th fret, B, root position, top note B, barred
- x-x-9-10-10-10, 9th fret, B, root position, top note D, barred
- x-14-12-14-12-13, 12th fret, B, root position, top note F, all fretted
- x-14-15-14-15-x, 14th fret, B, root position, top note D, all fretted
How to use Bm7b5
Bm7b5 is the ii of A 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 Bm7b5 belongs to C major (the vii°, the leading tone) and A minor (the ii°, the supertonic).
What to play over Bm7b5
Every note of Bm7b5 is in B blues, B locrian, B altered and B half-whole diminished.
Chords near Bm7b5
Change one note of Bm7b5 and you have Bdim (drop the flat seventh), Bdim7 (the flat seventh becomes the diminished seventh), Bm7 (the flat fifth becomes the fifth), BmMaj7b5 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh) or B7b5 (the minor third becomes the major third).
Bm7b5 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.