Cm9♭5 — C minor ninth flat fifth chord
A half-diminished seventh chord with the ninth added. Four minor thirds apart in the lower voices, with the ninth on top.
- 1 = C
- b3 = Eb
- b5 = Gb
- b7 = Bb
- 9 = D
- Symbol
- Cm9♭5
- Root
- C
- Quality
- Minor ninth flat fifth
- Family
- extended
- Notes
- C Eb Gb Bb D
- Degree formula
1 b3 b5 b7 9- Semitones from the root
0 2 3 6 10- Distinct pitch classes
- 5
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 3 semitones, 3 semitones, 4 semitones, 4 semitones
- Notation
- Written m9♭5. The ii chord of a minor ii-V-i when the ninth is wanted.
- Key
- C · C major / A 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 | C | 0 | Perfect unison |
| b3 | Eb | 3 | Minor third |
| b5 | Gb | 6 | Tritone |
| b7 | Bb | 10 | Minor seventh |
| 9 | D | 2 | Major second |
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 | C | 1 | C – Eb – Gb – Bb – D | 0 3 6 10 2 |
| first inversion | Eb | b3 | Eb – Gb – Bb – D – C | 0 3 7 11 9 |
| second inversion | Gb | b5 | Gb – Bb – D – C – Eb | 0 4 8 6 9 |
| third inversion | Bb | b7 | Bb – D – C – Eb – Gb | 0 4 2 5 8 |
| fourth inversion | D | 9 | D – C – Eb – Gb – Bb | 0 10 1 4 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 | 8-6-8-7-7-6 | C D# A# D F# A# | 1 b3 b7 9 b5 b7 | C | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 8-6-8-7-7-8 | C D# A# D F# C | 1 b3 b7 9 b5 1 | C | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 8-5-8-8-7-6 | C D A# D# F# A# | 1 9 b7 b3 b5 b7 | C | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 8-5-8-8-7-8 | C D A# D# F# C | 1 9 b7 b3 b5 1 | C | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 8-9-8-8-7-10 | C F# A# D# F# D | 1 b5 b7 b3 b5 9 | C | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 8-9-8-8-11-10 | C F# A# D# A# D | 1 b5 b7 b3 b7 9 | C | 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 C
- ScaleC locrian
- ChordCm7b5
- ChordCm
- ChordCm7
Related
- KeyKey of C
- ScaleC locrian
- ChordCm7b5 — Half-diminished seventh
- ChordCm — Minor
- ChordCm7 — Minor seventh
- ChordC11 — Dominant eleventh
- ChordC13 — Dominant thirteenth
- ChordC9 — Dominant ninth