About E7b5 — drop 2 voicings
E7b5 is E, G#, Bb and D — E7 with the fifth lowered a semitone.
It sounds symmetrical and slightly unreal. The same four notes spell a 7♭5 a tritone away, which is exactly why one can stand in for the other.
E7b5 notes and formula
| E | G# | Bb | D |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♭5 | ♭7 |
Altered dominant — and the chord that makes the tritone substitution work.
Also written E7(b5), E7-5 or E7♭5. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play E7b5
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
E7b5 has 14 of them, on the middle four strings, the bottom four strings and the top four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: E in the bass, G# in the bass, Bb in the bass and D in the bass. The one to learn first is the Bb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the middle four strings, 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 010130 — 3 open strings and only 3 fretted notes. 1 of the 6 shapes here sits in open position. None of them needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 010130 | open position | E, root position | E | 3 open strings |
| xx2334 | 2nd fret | E, root position | G# | all fretted |
| x56756 | 5th fret | D, 3rd inversion | Bb | all fretted |
| xx6756 | 5th fret | G#, 1st inversion | Bb | all fretted |
| x7879x | 7th fret | E, root position | G# | all fretted |
| 12-x-12-13-11-x | 11th fret | E, root position | Bb | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 6 shell and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of E7b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (F), the 9 (F#), the #9 (F##), the b13 (C) and the 13 (C#).
How to use E7b5
E7b5 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at A — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
Voice by voice, E7b5 → A. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In E7b5 | Moves | In A |
|---|---|---|
| E, the root | stays where it is | E, the fifth |
| G#, the major third | rises a semitone | A, the root |
| Bb, the flat fifth | falls a semitone | A, the root |
| D, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | C#, the major third |
What to play over E7b5
Every note of E7b5 is in E whole tone, E lydian dominant, E altered and E half-whole diminished.
Chords near E7b5
Change one note of E7b5 and you have Emaj7b5 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), Em7b5 (the major third becomes a minor third), E7 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), Eaug7 (the flat fifth becomes a sharp fifth), E9b5 (add the ninth) or E/D (the flat fifth becomes a fifth).
E7b5 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On E7b5’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.