Fm7b5 Chord on Guitar
Fm7b5 = F – G# – B – D# (Root, Minor 3rd, Tritone, Minor 7th)
Fm7b5, also called F half-diminished, flattens the fifth of the plain minor-seventh shape, and unlike most of the qualities sharing this demanding first-fret barre, it needs two extra fingers reaching in genuinely different directions — one toward the A string, the other toward the B string.
F, G#, B, and D# make up the chord — root, minor third, diminished fifth, flat seventh. As iiø7 of Eb minor it's the essential first chord in the minor-key ii–V–i turnaround (Fm7b5–Bb7–Ebm), 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 (1st 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 Fm7 shape's single added note, and the difficult first-fret barre underneath makes this one worth practicing in isolation before dropping it into a progression. 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
- Fm7b5 – Bb7 – Ebm (iiø7 – V7 – i, the classic minor-key turnaround)
- Fm7b5 – Bb7 (iiø7 – V7)
- Abm7 – Fm7b5 – Bb7 (a longer chain resolving to V7)
- Ebm – Fm7b5 – Bb7 – Ebm (i – iiø7 – V7 – i)
FAQ
- Why is Fm7b5 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 Fm7b5 belongs to?
- The minor-key ii–V–i turnaround: Fm7b5 (iiø7) moves to Bb7 (V7) and resolves to Ebm (i), one of the most fundamental sequences in jazz-minor harmony, appearing constantly across countless standards regardless of transposition.
- Is Fm7b5 harder to play than plain Fm7?
- Yes — Fm7 needs only one extra finger, while Fm7b5 needs two, reaching to genuinely different frets on the A and B strings rather than staying compact, and the demanding first-fret barre compounds that difference.
- 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 higher-position alternative to this first-fret shape?
- An A-shape half-diminished barre with the root on the A string reaches the same notes around the eighth fret, which many players find considerably more comfortable than the tightly spaced first-fret version.
- Does Fm7b5 ever appear outside minor-key ii–V–i contexts?
- Yes — it can also function as vii half-diminished in contexts related to the diminished triad Fdim, 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 shape well pays off across the entire genre.
Fm7b5 on other instruments: Fm7b5 on Piano. Related: how chords are built, chord finder.