Guitar · half diminished seventh
Cm7♭5 Chord on Guitar
C Half-Diminished 7th (m7♭5) is C, Eb, Gb, Bb — the 1-b3-b5-b7 pattern of a half diminished seventh chord. There are 2 ways to play it on guitar, ranked below from easiest to hardest.
There is no open Cm7b5 shape on guitar — every version asks for a barre, which is exactly why this chord stops so many players. The one marked “Movable Root-5 Shape (3rd fret)” below is the friendliest grip, so start there.
Start here — Movable Root-5 Shape (3rd fret)
Barre at fret 3 — harder to hold than an open shape, but movable: slide it and you have every other half diminished seventh chord.
Every way to play it — 2 shapes, easiest first
Same chord in all of them. What changes is how much your hand has to do and where on the neck it sits.
Movable Root-5 Shape (3rd fret) Way 1 of 2
Movable Root-5 Shape (3rd fret)
Easiest here· intermediate· the standard shape
Barre at fret 3 — harder to hold than an open shape, but movable: slide it and you have every other half diminished seventh chord.
Movable Root-6 Shape (8th fret) Way 2 of 2
Movable Root-6 Shape (8th fret)
intermediate
Barre at fret 8 — the same movable idea, further up the neck: brighter, more compact, and easier to reach if you are already playing up there.
What beginners get wrong
Moving in and out of it
The shape above: Movable Root-5 Shape (3rd fret) — barred at fret 3.
Listening: each shape above has its own play button, and each one plays the notes that shape actually produces — not a generic triad.
Cm7b5 on other instruments
Same notes, different hands. Every link below is a real page with diagrams and audio.
Piano
Cm7♭5 on piano
3 voicings · easiest is intermediate
Ukulele
Cm7♭5 on ukulele
1 voicing · easiest is intermediate
Bass
Cm7♭5 on bass
1 voicing · easiest is advanced
Mandolin
Cm7♭5 on mandolin
1 voicing · easiest is intermediate
Banjo
Cm7♭5 on banjo
1 voicing · easiest is advanced
Or see C Half-Diminished 7th (m7♭5) on every instrument at once.
Chords next door
Same root, different colour — and all of them playable on guitar.
Cm7b5 on Guitar — questions people ask
What is the easiest way to play Cm7b5 on guitar?
“Movable Root-5 Shape (3rd fret)” — which we rate intermediate — is the easiest Cm7b5 shape on guitar. Barre at fret 3 — harder to hold than an open shape, but movable: slide it and you have every other half diminished seventh chord. There is no open Cm7b5 on guitar, so a barre is unavoidable; this is the least demanding one.
What notes are in the C Half-Diminished 7th (m7♭5) chord?
C Half-Diminished 7th (m7♭5) is C, Eb, Gb, Bb — the 1-b3-b5-b7 interval pattern of a half diminished seventh chord. Every voicing on this page uses those notes and nothing else; they just appear in a different order and octave.
How many ways can you play Cm7b5 on guitar?
This page has 2 Cm7b5 voicings for guitar, ranked from easiest to hardest: Movable Root-5 Shape (3rd fret), Movable Root-6 Shape (8th fret). They all sound like Cm7b5; the differences are how hard they are to hold and how high they sit.
What can I play instead of Cm7b5?
The nearest stand-ins on guitar that keep the same root are Csus4, Csus2, C. 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 Cm7b5 on other instruments?
Yes. Cm7b5 is the same set of notes everywhere; only the fingering changes. This site has diagrams and audio for it on piano, ukulele, bass, mandolin, banjo.
Learn the theory behind Cm7b5
The shape gets your fingers there. These explain why it sounds the way it does.
Barre Chords — The Wall Every Guitarist Climbs
This one asks for a barre. The article is the fix for the buzzing and the aching hand.
7 min read
Functional Harmony: Three Roles, One Engine
Diminished chords are almost always doing a job. This explains which one.
6 min read
Cadences — The Four Ways a Phrase Ends
Where all that tension goes — how the chord resolves into the next one.
4 min read