Fmaj7b5 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.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Fmaj7b5 — shell voicings
Fmaj7b5 is F, A, Cb and E — Fmaj7 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.
Fmaj7b5 notes and formula
| F | A | Cb | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♭5 | 7 |
Coloured tonic — rare, and unstable for a major chord.
Also written FM7b5, FΔ7b5 or Fmaj7(b5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Fmaj7b5
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.
Fmaj7b5 has 6 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2, the bottom four strings, strings 5-3-2-1, the top four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 12th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the F shape at the nut.
Start with 102200 — no barre and 3 open strings. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 3 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 102200 | open position | F, root position | E | 3 open strings |
| 1222x1 | 1st fret | F, root position | F | barred |
| xx3455 | 3rd fret | F, root position | A | all fretted |
| x-8-7-9-10-7 | 7th fret | F, root position | Cb | all fretted |
| x-8-9-9-10-x | 8th fret | F, root position | A | all fretted |
| 13-12-14-14-12-12 | 12th fret | F, root position | E | barred |
| 13-14-14-14-x-x | 13th fret | F, root position | A | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 14 drop 2, 9 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Fmaj7b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (G) and the 13 (D).
How to use Fmaj7b5
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Fmaj7b5 is Gm7 to C7 — the ii and the V of F — and C7 shares its third and seventh with Gm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of Fmaj7b5 belongs to C major (the IV, the subdominant) and A minor (the ♭VI).
What to play over Fmaj7b5
Every note of Fmaj7b5 is in F lydian.
Chords near Fmaj7b5
Change one note of Fmaj7b5 and you have Fmaj7 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), Fmaj7#5 (the flat fifth becomes a sharp fifth), FmMaj7b5 (the major third becomes a minor third), F7b5 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh) or F/E (the flat fifth becomes a fifth).
Fmaj7b5 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On Fmaj7b5’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.