Bbm7b5 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Bbm7b5 — shell voicings
Bbm7b5 is Bb, Db, Fb and Ab — Bbm7 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.
Bbm7b5 notes and formula
| Bb | Db | Fb | Ab |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | ♭7 |
Also written Bbø, Bbø7, Bbm7-5, Bbm7(b5) or Bb half diminished. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bbm7b5
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
Bbm7b5 has 6 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1, strings 6-4-3-2, the middle four strings and the bottom four strings, from open position up to the 12th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the Bb shape at the nut.
Play Bbm7b5 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (Eb) or the b13 (Gb).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- x1212x, 1st fret, Bb, root position, top note Db, all fretted
- xx2324, 2nd fret, Fb, 2nd inversion, top note Ab, all fretted
- 6xx654, 4th fret, Bb, root position, top note Ab, all fretted
- 6x665x, 5th fret, Bb, root position, top note Fb, barred
- 678696, 6th fret, Bb, root position, top note Bb, barred
- xx8999, 8th fret, Bb, root position, top note Db, barred
- x-13-11-13-11-12, 11th fret, Bb, root position, top note Fb, all fretted
- x-13-14-13-14-x, 13th fret, Bb, root position, top note Db, all fretted
How to use Bbm7b5
Bbm7b5 is the ii of Ab 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 Bbm7b5 belongs to Ab minor (the ii°, the supertonic) and B major (the vii°, the leading tone).
What to play over Bbm7b5
Every note of Bbm7b5 is in Bb blues, Bb locrian, Bb altered and Bb half-whole diminished.
Chords near Bbm7b5
Change one note of Bbm7b5 and you have Bbdim (drop the flat seventh), Bbdim7 (the flat seventh becomes the diminished seventh), Bbm7 (the flat fifth becomes the fifth), BbmMaj7b5 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh) or Bb7b5 (the minor third becomes the major third).
Bbm7b5 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.