D#m7b5 Chord on Guitar
D#m7b5 = D# – F# – A – C# (Root, Minor 3rd, Tritone, Minor 7th)
D#m7b5, also called D# half-diminished, flattens the fifth of the plain minor-seventh shape, and unlike most of the qualities sharing this eleventh-fret barre, it needs two extra fingers reaching in genuinely different directions — one down toward the A string, the other up toward the B string.
D#, F#, A, and C# make up the chord — root, minor third, diminished fifth, flat seventh. As iiø7 of C# minor it's the essential first chord in the minor-key ii–V–i turnaround (D#m7b5–G#7–C#m), a progression pattern that anchors an enormous amount of jazz-minor and Latin-jazz harmony regardless of which specific key it appears in.
Fingerings
Barre (11th fret)
How to Practice It
The two extra fingers land on the A and B strings at noticeably different frets, requiring a wider stretch than the plain D#m7 shape's single added note, so practicing this chord in isolation before dropping it into a progression is worth the extra time. Because the flattened fifth is what gives this chord its distinctive half-diminished color, make sure that B-string note rings clearly rather than getting buried, since it's the single interval separating this chord from a plain minor seventh.
Common Progressions
- D#m7b5 – G#7 – C#m (iiø7 – V7 – i, the classic minor-key turnaround)
- D#m7b5 – G#7 (iiø7 – V7)
- Fm7 – D#m7b5 – G#7 (a longer chain resolving to V7)
- C#m – D#m7b5 – G#7 – C#m (i – iiø7 – V7 – i)
FAQ
- Why is D#m7b5 also called half-diminished?
- It shares the diminished triad's flattened fifth but keeps a regular flat seventh instead of the fully diminished seventh a true diminished-seventh chord would have, landing it halfway between a plain minor seventh and a fully diminished chord — hence the name.
- What's the classic progression D#m7b5 belongs to?
- The minor-key ii–V–i turnaround: D#m7b5 (iiø7) moves to G#7 (V7) and resolves to C#m (i), one of the most fundamental sequences in jazz-minor harmony, appearing constantly across countless standards regardless of transposition.
- Is D#m7b5 harder to play than plain D#m7?
- Yes — D#m7 needs only one extra finger, while D#m7b5 needs two, reaching to genuinely different frets on the A and B strings rather than staying compact, making it a noticeably wider stretch.
- How does the flattened fifth change the chord's sound?
- It replaces the stable perfect fifth with a diminished one, giving the chord a more unsettled, searching quality than a plain minor seventh, which is exactly the tension jazz composers want at the start of a minor-key turnaround.
- Is there a lower-position alternative to this eleventh-fret shape?
- An A-shape half-diminished barre with the root on the A string reaches the same notes around the sixth fret, which some players find more comfortable than the tightly spaced eleventh-fret version.
- Does D#m7b5 ever appear outside minor-key ii–V–i contexts?
- Yes — it can also function as vii half-diminished in E major-ish contexts related to the diminished triad D#dim, since half-diminished and fully diminished chords built on the same root share several notes and often substitute for each other in denser jazz voicings.
- Why is this exact chord family so central to jazz harmony?
- Half-diminished seventh chords give composers a way to signal minor-key harmonic motion with more color and forward pull than a plain minor triad, and because the ii–V–i pattern transposes identically to any key, learning this one shape well pays off across the entire genre.
D#m7b5 on other instruments: D#m7b5 on Piano. Related: how chords are built, chord finder.