Bb9b5 guitar chord
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About Bb9b5 — 3rd inversion
Bb9b5 keeps the natural 9th of , but lowers its 5th to : Bb, D, Fb, Ab and C.
Keep the flat 5th audible. Bb9b5 is not with a flat 9th; the 9th is still natural.
Also written Bb9(b5), Bb9-5 or Bb9♭5.
What 3rd inversion means
Bb9b5 in 3rd inversion puts Ab in the bass instead of Bb, 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 Bb9b5’s 10 shapes does this:xx6758
How to use Bb9b5
Bb9b5 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 Eb. More voices leaning the same way is all "more tension" means here.
In a phrase:→→
The ii–V–I of Eb.
Voice by voice, Bb9b5 → . 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords. Those semitones are what the ear follows; the rest is the chord rearranging itself underneath.
| In Bb9b5 | Moves | In Eb |
|---|---|---|
| Bb, the root | stays where it is | Bb, the fifth |
| D, the major third | rises a semitone | Eb, the root |
| Fb, the flat fifth | falls a semitone | Eb, the root |
| Ab, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | G, the major third |
| C, the ninth | falls a whole tone | Bb, the fifth |
What to play over Bb9b5
Useful scales
- +F#
Contains Bb9b5 and adds sharp fifth.
- +FG
Adds fifth and thirteenth, for a dominant sharp-eleventh color.
Chords near Bb9b5
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The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.