Guitar · seventh flat five
A♭7♭5 Chord on Guitar
Ab Dominant 7♭5 is Ab, C, D, Gb — the 1-3-b5-b7 pattern of a seventh flat five chord. Here is the shape, the audio, and what usually goes wrong.
There is no open Ab7b5 on guitar — the single shape below is a barre, which is exactly why this chord trips people up. Take it slowly and check every string.
Start here — Movable Root-6 Shape (4th fret)
Barre at fret 4 — harder to hold than an open shape, but movable: slide it and you have every other seventh flat five chord.
What beginners get wrong
Moving in and out of it
The shape above: Movable Root-6 Shape (4th fret) — barred at fret 4.
Listening: each shape above has its own play button, and each one plays the notes that shape actually produces — not a generic triad.
Ab7b5 on other instruments
Same notes, different hands. Every link below is a real page with diagrams and audio.
Chords next door
Same root, different colour — and all of them playable on guitar.
Ab7b5 on Guitar — questions people ask
What is the easiest way to play Ab7b5 on guitar?
“Movable Root-6 Shape (4th fret)” — which we rate advanced — is the easiest Ab7b5 shape on guitar. Barre at fret 4 — harder to hold than an open shape, but movable: slide it and you have every other seventh flat five chord. There is no open Ab7b5 on guitar, so a barre is unavoidable; this is the least demanding one.
What notes are in the Ab Dominant 7♭5 chord?
Ab Dominant 7♭5 is Ab, C, D, Gb — the 1-3-b5-b7 interval pattern of a seventh flat five chord. Every voicing on this page uses those notes and nothing else; they just appear in a different order and octave.
What can I play instead of Ab7b5?
The nearest stand-ins on guitar that keep the same root are Ab5, Absus4, Absus2. They keep the root and the fifth and only change what sits in the middle, so most songs still work — but check the swap against the melody, because the note you removed may be the one the tune is singing.
Can I play Ab7b5 on other instruments?
Yes. Ab7b5 is the same set of notes everywhere; only the fingering changes. This site has diagrams and audio for it on piano.
Learn the theory behind Ab7b5
The shape gets your fingers there. These explain why it sounds the way it does.
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