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82 Hertz: Minor seventh b5 arpeggio patterns

Minor seventh b5 arpeggio

Here are some of the standard fingering patterns for playing minor seventh flatted 5 chord arpeggios. As usual, the root note is emphasized. The patterns are not named because they generally span more than one type of chord pattern.

Some of the patterns are very awkward. You'll also see some overlap in the patterns, which is more typical on these patterns where is a large stretch to reach the next note.

The same chords and patterns are shown in both a vertical and a horizontal display because some people have trouble with one form or the other.

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Starting on the chord's root

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Starting on the chord's third

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Starting on the chord's fifth

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This pattern includes parts of other patterns.

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Starting on the chord's seventh

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Using the patterns

This chord is also called the "half diminished" chord, made using: Root / flat 3rd / flat 5th / flat 7th.

Why would you want to learn this? It becomes useful when you look at how it relates to other chords.

To made it easier to look at, I'll use the example of an Em7b5, where the notes are E G Bb D. Since it a m7 chord, it is build on a minor scale, so the 3 and 7 start off flatted. The only change to a standard m7 chord is 5 ⇒ b5.

Root
E
3 (min)
G
b5
Bb
7 (min)
D

One example says that it can be used in the key of C as a C7/E. That notation means playing the C dom 7, using the inversion that has E as the bass note Its so that chord's notes would be: E G Bb C. That still seems like a weird usage until you pick the notes apart.

C7    ⇒ C E G Bb
C9    ⇒ C E G Bb D
Em7b5 ⇒   E G Bb D

The Em7b5 arpeggio we are using, E G Bb D, has no C in it, and it's replacing a C7, where the notes are C E G Bb. But there are 3 common notes: E G and Bb.

If you add the missing root note for the key, C, and rearrange those 5 notes (the arpeggio and the missing root note) you get C E G Bb D — which is a C9.

Now the substitution makes sense because this pattern arpeggiates a dominant ninth chord with the root removed. I'll go into more about 9th chords on another page.

You may be able to see this if you think of the circled notes in the arpeggio diagrams above as the major third note of a chord. Imagine adding another note that is a major third below the circles notes, which would be the root note of a chord. Now you might recognize some familiar ninth chord forms.

Once you understand how to build the 1-3-5-7 of the chord and learn a few of the patterns, you'll see how they interconnect. One example is shown in the third pattern of the section of arpeggios that start on the chord's 5 note. It covers part of the both the patterns before and after it. You can always move to another pattern when it's convenient or to reach a starting point for a different pattern, such as a minor pentatonic.