How to Play a Minor 7th Flat 5 Chord on the Guitar

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By Gary Hancock
eHow Contributing Writer

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"A" Minor 7th Flat 5 Chord

This article will teach you how to play a Minor 7th flat 5 chord on the guitar. An "A" Minor 7th flat 5 chord is used in this example. Minor 7th flat five chords can sometimes be used as substitutions for normal Minor 7th chords to create more tension in a song. These chords, which are built from the first, third, flat-fifth and flat-seventh degrees of the major scale, are used widely in Jazz and Jazz-influenced music.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

6-string acoustic or electric guitar

How to Play a Minor 7th Flat 5 Chord on the Guitar

Step 1

Place your second (middle) finger behind the second fret on the second string of the guitar. Frets are the metal ridges on the fingerboard of the guitar. The first fret is the fret closest to the headstock of the guitar. The strings on the guitar are referred to as strings 1 through 6 with the first string being the thinnest string and the sixth string being the thickest.
Step 2

Place your first finger behind the second fret on the fourth string of the guitar.
Step 3

Make sure that the fingers you are using to fret the notes are touching only the desired string.
Step 4

Play each string individually, making sure that each note in the chord sounds clean and clear.
Step 5

Strum the entire chord from the fifth string down to the first. Do not play the sixth string in this chord.