Cmaj7b5 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
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Cmaj7b5 — open string voicings
Cmaj7b5 is C, E, Gb and B — Cmaj7 with the fifth lowered a semitone.
It sounds hollow and hard to place. Far more often met spelled the other way round, as a ♯11 over a chord that kept its fifth.
Cmaj7b5 notes and formula
| C | E | Gb | B |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♭5 | 7 |
Coloured tonic — rare, and unstable for a major chord.
Also written CM7b5, CΔ7b5 or Cmaj7(b5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Cmaj7b5
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.
Cmaj7b5 has 6 of them, on strings 6-5-4-3-2-1 and strings 6-5-4-3-2, from the 2nd fret up to the 5th — every inversion the chord has: E in the bass and Gb in the bass. The one to learn first is the E shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
4 of them sit on strings 6-5-4-3-2-1, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with x32402 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 6 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 12th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x32402 | open position | C, root position | Gb | 1 open string |
| x32452 | 2nd fret | C, root position | Gb | all fretted |
| x3445x | 3rd fret | C, root position | E | all fretted |
| 879977 | 7th fret | C, root position | B | barred |
| 8999x8 | 8th fret | C, root position | C | barred |
| x-x-10-11-12-12 | 10th fret | C, root position | E | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell, 12 drop 2 and 8 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Cmaj7b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (D) and the 13 (A).
How to use Cmaj7b5
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Cmaj7b5 is Dm7 to G7 — the ii and the V of C — and G7 shares its third and seventh with Dm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Cmaj7b5 belongs to E minor (the ♭VI) and G major (the IV, the subdominant).
What to play over Cmaj7b5
Every note of Cmaj7b5 is in C lydian.
Chords near Cmaj7b5
Change one note of Cmaj7b5 and you have Cmaj7 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), Cmaj7#5 (the flat fifth becomes a sharp fifth), CmMaj7b5 (the major third becomes a minor third) or C7b5 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh).
Cmaj7b5 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Cmaj7b5’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.