F#m7b5 guitar chord
The standard grips this chord is usually shown with.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About F#m7b5 — 2nd inversion
F#m7b5 is F#, A, C and E — F#m7 with the fifth lowered a semitone.
It sounds hollow, and unmistakably going somewhere. It walks straight into an altered dominant, which is where you will nearly always meet it.
Pre-dominant — the ii of a minor key.
F#m7b5 notes and formula
| F# | A | C | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | ♭7 |
Also written F#ø, F#ø7, F#m7-5, F#m7(b5) or F# half diminished. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F#m7b5
F#m7b5 in 2nd inversion puts C in the bass instead of F#, the 5th of the chord. The notes are the same; what changes is what the bass line does, which is most of why you would reach for it — it lets the lowest voice move by step where the root would have jumped.
One of F#m7b5’s 8 common shapes does this:x-x-10-11-10-12
Play F#m7b5 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (B) or the b13 (D).
All 8 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 202210, open position, F#, root position, top note E, barred
- 234252, 2nd fret, F#, root position, top note F#, barred
- xx4555, 4th fret, F#, root position, top note A, barred
- x97978, 7th fret, F#, root position, top note C, all fretted
- x-9-10-9-10-x, 9th fret, F#, root position, top note A, all fretted
- x-x-10-11-10-12, 10th fret, C, 2nd inversion, top note E, all fretted
- 14-x-x-14-13-12, 12th fret, F#, root position, top note E, all fretted
- 14-x-14-14-13-x, 13th fret, F#, root position, top note C, barred
How to use F#m7b5
F#m7b5 is the ii of E minor, which is where it is nearly always found: half-diminished, then an altered dominant, then the minor tonic.
In which keys. Every note of F#m7b5 belongs to E minor (the ii°, the supertonic) and G major (the vii°, the leading tone).
What to play over F#m7b5
Every note of F#m7b5 is in F# blues, F# locrian, F# altered and F# half-whole diminished.
Chords near F#m7b5
Change one note of F#m7b5 and you have F#dim (drop the flat seventh), F#dim7 (the flat seventh becomes the diminished seventh), F#m7 (the flat fifth becomes the fifth), F#mMaj7b5 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh) or F#7b5 (the minor third becomes the major third).
F#m7b5 is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished 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.