BmMaj7b5 guitar chord
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. Because it costs no finger, it sounds a note the closed shape has none left for -- a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath. Either a familiar grip with open strings added, or a shape so sparse the open strings carry the chord. These belong to their key rather than to a shape, so D, A, G and E have many and Eb a handful.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About BmMaj7b5 — open string voicings
BmMaj7b5 is B, D, F and A# — Bm7b5 with the seventh raised a semitone.
It sounds brittle and impossible to mistake. Scarce enough that most players meet it as a passing sonority rather than as a chord they chose.
BmMaj7b5 notes and formula
| B | D | F | A# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | 7 |
Rare tonic — a half-diminished chord with its seventh raised instead.
Also written BmM7b5 or Bm(maj7)b5. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play BmMaj7b5
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. It costs no finger, so it can sound a note the closed shape has none left for: a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath.
These belong to their key rather than to a shape: they cannot be moved up the neck. D, A, G and E have many; E♭ has a handful.
BmMaj7b5 has 6 of them, on strings 5-4-3-2-1, strings 6-5-4-3-2-1, strings 6-4-3-2-1 and the top four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 6th — every inversion the chord has: B in the bass, D in the bass and A# in the bass. The one to learn first is the B shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with x-x-9-10-11-10 — no barre. None of the shapes for BmMaj7b5 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 3 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x2333x | 2nd fret | B, root position | D | barred |
| 78x766 | 6th fret | B, root position | A# | all fretted |
| 7887x7 | 7th fret | B, root position | B | barred |
| x-x-9-10-11-10 | 9th fret | B, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-14-x-15-15-13 | 13th fret | B, root position | F | all fretted |
| x-14-15-15-15-x | 14th fret | B, root position | D | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 6 shell, 15 drop 2 and 10 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of BmMaj7b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (E) and the b13 (G).
What to play over BmMaj7b5
Every note of BmMaj7b5 is in B diminished.
Chords near BmMaj7b5
Change one note of BmMaj7b5 and you have Bdim (drop the major seventh), Bdim7 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), Bmaj7b5 (the minor third becomes a major third), Bm7b5 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh) or BmMaj7 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth).
BmMaj7b5 is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
On BmMaj7b5’s sound and use this page follows Robert Rawlins & Nor Eddine Bahha, Jazzology (Hal Leonard, 2005). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.