Major Seventh Flat Five Chord

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Last updated on: 2009-08-19 2:17 PM

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A major seventh flat five chord is composed using a root/1^st, major 3^rd, diminished 5^th and major 7^th (or R/1-3-5-7) intervals played simultaneously. Generally written as CMA⁷⁽⁵⁾ or Cma^7(-5), it is good practice to simply use an uppercase C then uppercase letters MA followed by a superscripted ⁷⁽⁵⁾ to represent it in writing (ie: CMA⁷⁽⁵⁾).

The tonality of a major seventh flat five chord is dissonant and unstable, as opposed to a major chord which is consonant and stable.

Major Seventh Flat Five Tetrad

In music theory, a major seventh flat five chord belongs to a group of chords called tetrads. Generally, a tetrad is a four note chord composed using specific intervals, those being the root/1^st, the 3^rd, the 5^th and the 7^th degrees (note absence of interval quality). As previously shown, a major seventh flat five tetrad is composed using a root/1^st, major 3^rd, diminished 5^th and major 7^th (R/1-3-5-7) intervals. Other tetrads are built by raising or lowering the 3^rd, 5^th and/or 7^th degrees.

Major Seventh Flat Five Chord Profile

Intervals	root/1^st, major 3^rd, diminished 5^th, major 7^th or R/1-3-5-7
Stability	Dissonant / Unresolved
Grouping Class	Tetrad
Common Names (examples in C)	CMA⁷⁽⁵⁾, CMA^7(-5), C⁷⁽⁵⁾

Major Seventh Flat Five Chord Voicings

The chord voicings below are not shown in any particular key, they are shapes which can be moved around the guitar neck freely using the root note (circled dot) as your navigator. See example below.

How to use
As an example, let's say you require a D major chord
After playing all the chord voicings, you decide on voicing #2
Voicing #2 has it's root on the 5^th string so you need to find the D note on this string
Click the notes on the neck chart tab and find the D note on the 5^th fret (5^th string)
Now play D major using voicing #2 on the 5^th fret
Use the Octave chart tab to help you remember which notes are where
Use the Chord chart help tab if your a beginner at reading chord boxes

Notes on the guitar neck chart (lite version)

Using octaves to learn notes on the guitar neck

First determine which chord you require, let's use a B major chord in this example.
We know the root note is B, (if it were an A major chord the root note would be A and for Cma⁷ it would be C, etc etc)
Using the notes on the guitar neck chart, find the B note on the 6^th string, 7^th fret.
Now using the major chord voicings chart, look for voicing #4 which has it's root note on the 6^th string and play it, your done!
Remember, learning and memorizing notes, chord voicings and scales in this way will improve your playing skills, theoretical knowledge and desirability as a band member.

Major Seventh Flat Five Chord Audio Sample(s)

To download audio sample(s) for later listening, right click on the MP3 link, then from the context menu that appears select Save Target As (Internet Explorer) or Save Link As (Firefox).

Audio Sample Name	Flash	MP3
C Major Seventh Flat Five Chord voicing #4		c-major-seventh-flat-five-chord-voicing-4.mp3

Related Lessons & Resources

Guitar Lessons
- How to read chord diagrams
- Open chords part 1
Music Theory
- Harmonizing a major scale (triads)

External Resources

Major seventh chord at Wikipedia.org