B7b5 — B dominant seventh flat five chord
A dominant seventh chord with a flattened fifth. The same notes as the dominant seventh chord a tritone away.
- 1 = B
- 3 = D#
- b5 = F
- b7 = A
- Symbol
- B7b5
- Root
- B
- Quality
- Dominant seventh flat five
- Family
- altered
- Notes
- B D# F A
- Degree formula
1 3 b5 b7- Semitones from the root
0 4 6 10- Distinct pitch classes
- 4
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 4 semitones, 2 semitones, 4 semitones
- Notation
- Written 7b5. An altered dominant, usually resolving down a fifth.
- Key
- B · B major / G# minor key signature
Formula
The chord tones in order from the root, with the interval each one forms above it.
| Degree | Note | Semitones | Interval from the root |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | B | 0 | Perfect unison |
| 3 | D# | 4 | Major third |
| b5 | F | 6 | Tritone |
| b7 | A | 10 | Minor seventh |
Inversions
An inversion is the same set of notes with a different one in the bass. The last column gives the distance of each note above the bass note, in semitones.
| Inversion | Bass note | Degree in the bass | Notes above the bass | Semitones above the bass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| root position | B | 1 | B – D# – F – A | 0 4 6 10 |
| first inversion | D# | 3 | D# – F – A – B | 0 2 6 8 |
| second inversion | F | b5 | F – A – B – D# | 0 4 6 10 |
| third inversion | A | b7 | A – B – D# – F | 0 2 6 8 |
Playable voicings
These shapes were found by searching the fretboard of a standard-tuned guitar (E A D G B E) rather than copied from a chord book. The search allows every string to sound or to be muted, rejects any shape with a muted string between two sounding strings, rejects any shape whose fretted notes span more than four frets (a five-fret window), requires every chord tone to be present, and then sorts what remains with root-position shapes first and the most compact, lowest shapes next. The shapes shown are the first six of that ordering; other orderings are possible at the same frets.
| # | Shape (low string first) | Notes | Degrees | Bass | Span (frets) | Sounding strings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7-6-7-8-6-7 | B D# A D# F B | 1 3 b7 3 b5 1 | B | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 7-8-7-8-6-7 | B F A D# F B | 1 b5 b7 3 b5 1 | B | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 7-6-7-4-6-5 | B D# A B F A | 1 3 b7 1 b5 b7 | B | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 7-6-7-4-6-7 | B D# A B F B | 1 3 b7 1 b5 1 | B | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 7-6-7-8-6-5 | B D# A D# F A | 1 3 b7 3 b5 b7 | B | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 7-8-7-8-6-5 | B F A D# F A | 1 b5 b7 3 b5 b7 | B | 3 | 6 |
Shape numbers run from the lowest string to the highest, so the left-hand number is the sixth string (low E) in standard tuning. Multiple shapes are listed because a chord can be voiced several ways, and because a lower position is not always the better sounding one.
Related chords and scales
- KeyEverything in B
- ScaleB lydian dominant
- ChordB7
- ChordF7b5
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