F7b5 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About F7b5 — drop 2 voicings
F7b5 is F, A, Cb and Eb — F7 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.
Altered dominant — and the chord that makes the tritone substitution work.
F7b5 notes and formula
| F | A | Cb | Eb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♭5 | ♭7 |
Also written F7(b5), F7-5 or F7♭5. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F7b5
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.
F7b5 has 14 of them, on the top four strings, the bottom four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: F in the bass, A in the bass, Cb in the bass and Eb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Eb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 of them sit on the top 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.
Play F7b5 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the b9 (Gb), the 9 (G), the #9 (G#), the b13 (Db) or the 13 (D).
All 6 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 101201, open position, F, root position, top note F, barred
- xx3445, 3rd fret, F, root position, top note A, all fretted
- x67867, 6th fret, Eb, 3rd inversion, top note Cb, all fretted
- xx7867, 6th fret, A, 1st inversion, top note Cb, all fretted
- x-8-9-8-10-x, 8th fret, F, root position, top note A, all fretted
- 13-x-13-14-12-x, 12th fret, F, root position, top note Cb, all fretted
How to use F7b5
F7b5 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at Bb — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
In a phrase:Cm7→F7b5→Bbmaj7— the ii–V–I of Bb.
Voice by voice, F7b5 → Bb. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In F7b5 | Moves | In Bb |
|---|---|---|
| F, the root | stays where it is | F, the fifth |
| A, the major third | rises a semitone | Bb, the root |
| Cb, the flat fifth | falls a semitone | Bb, the root |
| Eb, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | D, the major third |
What to play over F7b5
Every note of F7b5 is in F whole tone, F lydian dominant, F altered and F half-whole diminished.
Chords near F7b5
Change one note of F7b5 and you have Fmaj7b5 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh), Fm7b5 (the major third becomes the minor third), F7 (the flat fifth becomes the fifth), Faug7 (the flat fifth becomes the sharp fifth), F9b5 (add the ninth) or F/D# (the flat fifth becomes the fifth).
F7b5 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant 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.