F7b5 guitar chord
The third voice from the top lowered an octave. The dropped voice becomes the bass, which is why a string is skipped.
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About F7b5 — drop 3 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.
F7b5 notes and formula
| F | A | Cb | Eb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♭5 | ♭7 |
Altered dominant — and the chord that makes the tritone substitution work.
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
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
F7b5 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 12th — 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 Cb shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, 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 xx3445 — no barre and low, at the 3rd fret. 1 of the 6 shapes here sits in open position. 1 of the 6 needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 101201 | open position | F, root position | F | barred |
| xx3445 | 3rd fret | F, root position | A | all fretted |
| x67867 | 6th fret | Eb, 3rd inversion | Cb | all fretted |
| xx7867 | 6th fret | A, 1st inversion | Cb | all fretted |
| x-8-9-8-10-x | 8th fret | F, root position | A | all fretted |
| 13-x-13-14-12-x | 12th fret | F, root position | Cb | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 6 shell, 14 drop 2 and 2 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of F7b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (Gb), the 9 (G), the #9 (G#), the b13 (Db) and the 13 (D).
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.
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 a major seventh), Fm7b5 (the major third becomes a minor third), F7 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), Faug7 (the flat fifth becomes a sharp fifth), F9b5 (add the ninth) or F/D# (the flat fifth becomes a fifth).
F7b5 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On F7b5’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.