half-diminished chord · A root
Am7b5 chord
- A1
- C♭3
- Eb♭5
- G♭7
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The A half-diminished chord is built from the notes A, C, Eb, G. It turns up 4 times in the 80 songs on this site, including Autumn Leaves.
By Chiye · Updated
What is the Am7b5 chord?
The Am7b5 chord (A half-diminished) is a half-diminished chord built from four notes: A, C, Eb, G — the 1–♭3–♭5–♭7 of the A scale, 3 semitones and 6 semitones and 10 semitones above the root. On guitar it is most often played in open position (x-0-1-0-1-x) with 2 fingers while 2 strings ring open and the low E string stays silent. It is rated advanced. A minor seventh with a flattened fifth, the shape that leans hardest toward the key it is about to resolve into. It is one of the most-used chords in this site's library: across the 80 song sheets charted here, Am7b5 appears 4 times in 1 song, most often in the key of Gm, and the chord it most often moves to is D7. Below you will find step-by-step fingering, audio of every shape, and the real progressions this chord lives inside.
How do you play the Am7b5 chord on guitar?
Open position — the easiest version of Am7b5 on the guitar.
- Press the D string at fret 1 with your middle finger.
- Press the B string at fret 1 with your index finger.
- Start your strum on the A string and leave the low E and high E strings out.
The x marks are part of the shape, not an accident: the chord only sounds right when low E and high E stay silent. Instead of aiming your pick around those strings, let a spare finger rest on it and damp it. x-0-1-0-1-x
How do you make Am7b5 sound clean?
Am7b5 is usually played with too many strings ringing — the low E has no place in the chord.
Am → Am7b5 → D7 → Gm: the ii–V–i of G minor.
In real songs
What songs use the Am7b5 chord?
- chord changes
- 4
- songs
- 1
- common keys
- Gm
Across the 80 chord sheets on this site, Am7b5 appears 4 times in 1 song — most often in the key of Gm.
Am7b5D7Gm7Gm7
Am7b5D7Gm7Gm7
Am7b5D7Gm7Gm7
Chord flow
What chord comes after Am7b5?
Every number here is a count from the progressions in our song sheets, not a generalisation: 1560 chord changes are behind these figures.
After Am7b5, songs go to
- D74×
Three-chord moves
Three-chord moves are where a chord really shows its character. These are the ones that actually happen in this library, counted from the sheets:
The theory behind Am7b5
Am7b5 is spelled A – C – Eb – G — the 1 – ♭3 – ♭5 – ♭7 of the A scale, which is the root plus 3 semitones, 6 semitones, 10 semitones. A minor seventh with a flattened fifth, the shape that leans hardest toward the key it is about to resolve into.
The flattened fifth is what makes Am7b5 unstable: it is a diminished triad with a minor seventh stacked on it, so it sounds like it is on the way somewhere rather than at rest. It has two usual destinations — up a semitone when it acts as the leading-tone chord, or down to the dominant when it acts as the second-degree chord — which is why you almost never hear it end a phrase.
What key is the Am7b5 chord in?
Am7b5 is the half-diminished seventh built on A, and it turns up in two places without borrowing: as the viiø7 in Bb major, where it resolves up a semitone, and as the iiø7 in G minor, where it steps down to the dominant.
the leading-tone seventh — it resolves up a semitone
the second-degree seventh in a minor key — it steps down to the V
Am7b5 on other instruments
A – C – Eb – G — the highlighted black keys are the sharps or flats; play each note once, then move them into one hand position.
Take it to the practice room
