Bmaj7#5 guitar chord
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About Bmaj7#5 — 2nd inversion
Bmaj7#5 is B, D#, G and A# — Bmaj7 with the fifth raised a semitone.
It sounds weightless, with no pull in it. Unlike an aug7 there is no flat seventh dragging it anywhere, so it colours a tonic rather than replacing it with a dominant.
Bmaj7#5 notes and formula
| B | D# | G | A# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 | 7 |
Tonic — the lydian augmented sound.
Also written BM7#5, BΔ7#5, B+M7 or Bmaj7(#5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bmaj7#5
Bmaj7#5 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 Bmaj7#5’s 8 common shapes does this: xx5446.
Start with x21303 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 1 of the 8 needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x21303 | open position | B, root position | G | 1 open string |
| x2534x | 2nd fret | B, root position | D# | all fretted |
| xx5446 | 4th fret | F##, 2nd inversion | A# | all fretted |
| 76808x | 6th fret | B, root position | G | 1 open string |
| xx9886 | 6th fret | B, root position | A# | all fretted |
| 7x8887 | 7th fret | B, root position | B | barred |
| x-x-9-12-11-11 | 9th fret | B, root position | D# | all fretted |
| x-14-13-12-11-11 | 11th fret | B, root position | D# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 2 shell, 15 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Bmaj7#5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (C#), the #11 (E#) and the 13 (G#).
How to use Bmaj7#5
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Bmaj7#5 is C#m7 to F#7 — the ii and the V of B — and F#7 shares its third and seventh with C#m7, so the hand barely moves between them.
Chords near Bmaj7#5
Change one note of Bmaj7#5 and you have Bmaj7 (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), Bmaj7b5 (the sharp fifth becomes a flat fifth), Baug (drop the major seventh) or Baug7 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh).
Bmaj7#5 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Bmaj7#5’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.