A minor seventh flat five chord (also known as a half diminished seventh chord) is composed using a root/1^st, minor 3^rd, diminished 5^th and minor 7^th (or R/1-3-5-7) intervals played simultaneously. Generally written as Cmi⁷⁽⁵⁾, C or C-7^(-5), it is good practice to simply use an uppercase C with lowercase letters mi followed by a superscripted ⁷⁽⁵⁾ to represent it in writing (ie: Cmi⁷⁽⁵⁾).

The minor seventh flat five chord is built upon the seventh degree of the harmonized major scale (tetrads) and possesses an extraordinary drive towards root resolution. The tonality of a minor seventh flat five chord is dissonant, unstable and unresolved, as opposed to major seventh or minor seventh chords which are consonant, stable and resolved.

Minor Seventh Flat Five Tetrad

In music theory, a minor 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 minor seventh flat five tetrad is composed using a root/1^st, minor 3^rd, diminished 5^th and minor 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. For instance, a minor seventh tetrad interval structure is root/1^st, minor 3^rd, perfect 5^th and minor 7^th (R/1-3-5-7). The interval structure for a major seventh tetrad is root/1^st, major 3^rd, perfect 5^th and major 7^th (R/1-3-5-7), and a dominant seventh tetrad is root/1^st, major 3^rd, perfect 5^th and minor 7^th (R/1-3-5-7).

Major seventh, minor seventh, dominant seventh and minor seventh flat five tetrads occur naturally in the harmonized major scale (tetrads).

Minor Seventh Flat Five Chord Profile

Intervals	root/1st, minor 3rd, diminished 5th, minor 7th or R/1-3-5-7
Stability	Dissonant / Unstable / Unresolved
Grouping Class	Tetrad
Common Names (examples in C)	Cmi7(5), C, C-7(-5), Half Diminished

Minor 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

Minor 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 Minor Seventh Flat Five Chord voicing #2		c-minor-seventh-flat-five-chord-voicing-2.mp3

Related Lessons & Resources

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

External Resources

• Minor seventh flat five chord at Wikipedia.org