Ab
Ab7b5
Notes
Ab · C · Ebb · Gb
Intervals
- RootAb (1P)
- Major 3rdC (3M)
- Diminished 5thEbb (5d)
- Minor 7thGb (7m)
Fretboard
On the fretboard, Eb represents Ebb.
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About
The A♭7♭5 (A♭–C–E♭♭–G♭) lowers the fifth, replacing the stable perfect fifth with a tritone above the root. Combined with the tritone already present between 3rd and ♭7, the chord contains two tritones — making it extremely unstable and dissonant. In jazz, 7♭5 functions as an altered dominant with a particular flavour of harmonic restlessness. The 3rd, ♭7, and ♭5 are all essential; the E♭♭ is the defining alteration, and omitting it leaves a plain A♭7. It resolves typically to D♭ or D♭m. Compared to standard A♭7, 7♭5 is considerably more harmonically tense.
Similar chords
Chords sharing two or more notes with this one, ranked by overlap.
Scales containing this chord
- A Diminished (deg 8)
- B♭ Natural Minor (VII)
- C Diminished (deg 6)
- D♭ Diminished (deg 5)
- D♭ Harmonic Minor (V)
- D♭ Major (V)
- D♭ Melodic Minor (V)
- E♭ Diminished (deg 4)
- E♭ Melodic Minor (IV)
- F♯ Diminished (deg 2)
- A♭ Mixolydian (I)
- C Locrian (VI)
- E♭ Dorian (IV)
- F Phrygian (III)
- F♯ Lydian (II)
Scales whose notes include every chord tone. Roman numeral marks the chord root’s position in the scale; dashed badges aren’t linked yet.