Cmaj7b5 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.
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About Cmaj7b5 — shell 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
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.
Cmaj7b5 has 5 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1, strings 6-4-3-2, the bottom four strings, the middle four strings and the top four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 9th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the C shape at the 2nd fret.
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 12 drop 2, 8 drop 3 and 6 open string 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.