Gm7b5 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
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Gm7b5 — shell voicings
Gm7b5 is G, Bb, Db and F — Gm7 with the fifth lowered a semitone.
It sounds hollow, and unmistakably going somewhere. Almost always the first chord of a minor ii–V–i, so it walks straight into an altered dominant.
Gm7b5 notes and formula
| G | Bb | Db | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | ♭7 |
Pre-dominant — the ii of a minor key.
Also written Gø, Gø7, Gm7-5, Gm7(b5) or G half diminished. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gm7b5
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.
Gm7b5 has 6 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2, strings 5-3-2-1, the bottom four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 14th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the G shape at the nut.
Start with 3xx321 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Gm7b5 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 4 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3xx321 | 1st fret | G, root position | F | all fretted |
| 3x332x | 2nd fret | G, root position | Db | barred |
| 345363 | 3rd fret | G, root position | G | barred |
| xx5666 | 5th fret | G, root position | Bb | barred |
| x-10-8-10-8-9 | 8th fret | G, root position | Db | all fretted |
| x-10-11-10-11-x | 10th fret | G, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x-x-11-12-11-13 | 11th fret | Db, 2nd inversion | F | all fretted |
| 15-x-15-15-14-x | 14th fret | G, root position | Db | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 14 drop 2 and 10 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Gm7b5, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (C) and the b13 (Eb).
How to use Gm7b5
Gm7b5 is the ii of F 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 Gm7b5 belongs to F minor (the ii°, the supertonic) and Ab major (the vii°, the leading tone).
What to play over Gm7b5
Every note of Gm7b5 is in G blues, G locrian, G altered and G half-whole diminished.
Chords near Gm7b5
Change one note of Gm7b5 and you have Gdim (drop the flat seventh), Gdim7 (the flat seventh becomes a sixth), Gm7 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), GmMaj7b5 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh) or G7b5 (the minor third becomes a major third).
Gm7b5 is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
On Gm7b5’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.