How to Play Minor 7 Flat 5 Guitar Chords Video Lecture - The Ultimate Guitar

take a listen to the C major chord how
did that just make you feel bland empty
maybe a tinge of joy but let's add one
chord before it
you
and all of a sudden that C major chord
is transformed into a blanket of
sunshine on a cold winter's day now we
have a particular chord to thank for
that and it is called the minor 7 flat 5
chord that one right there was a B minor
7 flat 5 chord so not only are we adding
not one but two numbers after the root
note of the chord but two words also
seems kind of confusing but actually
it's nice because it tells you exactly
what you need to get to that chord so
let's talk about where that chord is
found and how to use it let's do it in
the key of C major because it's the
easiest one right so again the notes of
C major are c d e f g a b and then
another C so if we number them it'd be
one two three four five six seven and as
we've talked about before to make chords
out of this we take the first third and
fifth note from wherever you're starting
at and that makes a triad chord so from
the first note which is a seat we'd get
a C major chord from the D we get D
minor D F a from the e we get E minor
four is f major five is G major six is a
minor and back to C right
usually we skip that it's called
diminish but we're gonna get to that in
a second now if we were to add a fourth
note to that the one three five seven
then we're starting to get seven chords
which now we have AC major seven a D
minor seven an E minor 7 and F major
seven a G dominant seven and a minor
seven
and that brings us to the seven this
yeah the seventh seven chord which is a
B minor 7 flat 5 so you can kind of
think of it as kind of a minor chord but
really it's a little bit different right
so for this one we have B we skip the C
go to D let's give the e F skip the G
and go back to a right so if we were to
arpeggiate that starting out of B which
is the seventh fret of the low E string
they didn't up with a B a minor 3rd a
flat 5 and a minor 7
okay so let's learn some chord voicings
to go with that let's learn an
easter-egg one in a string one now the
one that I usually see is the one rooted
on the a string right so the B on the a
string is the second fret let's take
this your ring finger is going to go to
the third fret of the D string your
middle finger is going to go to the
second fret of the g string so so far we
have kind of like a D major shape just
up a couple strings alright and then
we're gonna add our pinkie to the third
fret of the B string so there it is just
the middle of four strings right now
this is a movable shape so this is B
minor 7 flat 5 C minor 7 + C sharp under
simplified so on and so forth ok now
let's do one on the E string - so again
the B on the E string is the seventh
fret and what we're going to do actually
is we're going to start by making an a
minor chord ok regular voicing a minor
chord and now we're going to do it
without using your middle finger because
we're going to need this in a second all
right so if we do it without our middle
finger your pointer fingers on one B
your pinky is on to G and your ring
finger is on to D now we're going to
scoot this all the way down until we're
lined up with the seventh fret right
here ok so your middle finger is going
to take the root which is that B we just
talked about and we're going to skip the
a string so you can mute bass
play it and that is a B minor 7 flat 5
so they shrink voicings here and the E
string voicing is here now one would you
use a chord like this one thing you can
do is to use it to bridge two other
chords so this is a 7th chord in the
scale if we were doing something where
we're going from the 6th chord to the
first chord that's 7th one rests in
between so mikheev see we've got a a
minor to a C right we could use it in
between a minor B minor 7 flat 5 C right
so that really small part in between
those two chords is adding tension and
then it's being released by the C chord
and since we're in the key of C it's
called resolution right or resolving the
corner you have to be a real jerk to end
a chord progression on the 7 chord
alright so like if we're doing like C G
a minor
and then you just end it there it's like
your total jerk right everybody wants to
just play to see get it over with
resolve it is done these chords really
do the dirty work of making other chords
sound better in my opinion right so this
course is kind of like a and ugly sound
all by itself but when used in
combination with other chords it makes
them sound even better
so as we talked about before this chord
only occurs when it's rooted on the
seventh note in a key now that doesn't
mean you only have to use it in that one
particular instance in fact one thing
that's really cool is kind of replacing
something else with it out of a key and
then coming back to it to create even
more tension now for an example let's
let's go to that first shape we did
right we're to the a minor but we didn't
use our middle finger and we routed it
so right now I'm rooting it on an
f-sharp the second fret of the e-string
right so knowing that this F sharp minor
7 flat 5 chord is essentially 75% of a
minor let's work it into the key of C
and try to create some tension right so
if we start with the one chord C now
let's go right to the seven let's go
right to the B minor seven flat five and
then go to the f-sharp minor seven blend
live which is not in the key but we're
taking an f-sharp from another key to
add more of a color to it
so C be F sharp
and you can really get some interesting
chord progressions going when you're
substituting minor seven flat five
chords into it because it's taking the
whole tonal center and kind of throwing
it out of whack
and then you can choose which chord to
use to release it so let's do all the
seventh chords in the key of C and play
them as what's called a chord scale
where you kind of play the major scale
one two three four five six seven eight
do them with chords and we're doing a 7
chord specifically so it's going to be C
major seven d minor 7 e minor 7 F major
7 G's dominant 7 a minor 7 B minor 7
flat 5 and then end on a C or C major 7
so there you go a minor 7 flat 5 chord