FmMaj7b5 guitar chord
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. Because it costs no finger, it sounds a note the closed shape has none left for -- a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath. Either a familiar grip with open strings added, or a shape so sparse the open strings carry the chord. These belong to their key rather than to a shape, so D, A, G and E have many and Eb a handful.
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About FmMaj7b5 — open string voicings
FmMaj7b5 is F, Ab, Cb and E — Fm7b5 with the seventh raised a semitone.
It sounds brittle and impossible to mistake. Scarce enough that most players meet it as a passing sonority rather than as a chord they chose.
FmMaj7b5 notes and formula
| F | Ab | Cb | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | 7 |
Rare tonic — a half-diminished chord with its seventh raised instead.
Also written FmM7b5 or Fm(maj7)b5. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play FmMaj7b5
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. It costs no finger, so it can sound a note the closed shape has none left for: a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath.
These belong to their key rather than to a shape: they cannot be moved up the neck. D, A, G and E have many; E♭ has a handful.
FmMaj7b5 has 3 of them, on the top four strings, strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 6-4-3-2-1, from the 3rd fret up to the 6th — every inversion the chord has: Ab in the bass and E in the bass. The one to learn first is the Ab shape at the 6th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with 122100 — no barre and 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 122100 | open position | F, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| 1221x1 | 1st fret | F, root position | F | barred |
| xx3454 | 3rd fret | F, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| x8x997 | 7th fret | F, root position | Cb | all fretted |
| x8999x | 8th fret | F, root position | Ab | barred |
| 13-14-x-13-12-12 | 12th fret | F, root position | E | all fretted |
| 13-14-14-13-x-13 | 13th fret | F, root position | F | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 3 shell, 14 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of FmMaj7b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (Bb) and the b13 (Db).
What to play over FmMaj7b5
Every note of FmMaj7b5 is in F diminished.
Chords near FmMaj7b5
Change one note of FmMaj7b5 and you have Fdim (drop the major seventh), Fdim7 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), Fmaj7b5 (the minor third becomes a major third), Fm7b5 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh) or FmMaj7 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth).
FmMaj7b5 is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
On FmMaj7b5’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.