F#mMaj7b5 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 F#mMaj7b5 — open string voicings
F#mMaj7b5 is F#, A, C and E# — F#m7b5 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.
F#mMaj7b5 notes and formula
| F# | A | C | E# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | 7 |
Rare tonic — a half-diminished chord with its seventh raised instead.
Also written F#mM7b5 or F#m(maj7)b5. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F#mMaj7b5
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.
F#mMaj7b5 has 3 of them, on strings 6-5-4-3-2 and the middle four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 5th — every inversion the chord has: F# in the bass and A in the bass. The one to learn first is the F# shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx4565 — no barre and low, at the 4th fret. None of the shapes for F#mMaj7b5 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 3 of the 6 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2332x2 | 2nd fret | F#, root position | F# | barred |
| 23x211 | 1st fret | F#, root position | E# | all fretted |
| xx4565 | 4th fret | F#, root position | A | all fretted |
| x-9-x-10-10-8 | 8th fret | F#, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-9-10-10-10-x | 9th fret | F#, root position | A | barred |
| 14-15-15-14-x-14 | 14th fret | F#, root position | F# | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 14 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of F#mMaj7b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (B) and the b13 (D).
What to play over F#mMaj7b5
Every note of F#mMaj7b5 is in F# diminished.
Chords near F#mMaj7b5
Change one note of F#mMaj7b5 and you have F#dim (drop the major seventh), F#dim7 (the major seventh becomes a sixth), F#maj7b5 (the minor third becomes a major third), F#m7b5 (the major seventh becomes a flat seventh) or F#mMaj7 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth).
F#mMaj7b5 is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
On F#mMaj7b5’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.