G7♭5
G7♭5
Notes
G · B · D♭ · F
Intervals
- RootG (1P)
- Major 3rdB (3M)
- Diminished 5thD♭ (5d)
- Minor 7thF (7m)
Fretboard
Adjust labels, frets, and palette in the interactive view.
About
The G7♭5 (G–B–D♭–F) 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 D♭ is the defining alteration, and omitting it leaves a plain G7. It resolves typically to C or Cm. Compared to standard G7, 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
- G Whole Tone (deg 1)
- A Whole Tone (deg 6)
- A♭ Diminished (deg 8)
- A♭ Melodic Minor (VII)
- B Diminished (deg 6)
- B Whole Tone (deg 5)
- D Diminished (deg 4)
- D Melodic Minor (IV)
- D♭ Whole Tone (deg 4)
- E♭ Whole Tone (deg 3)
- F Diminished (deg 2)
- F Whole Tone (deg 2)
Scales whose notes include every chord tone. The Roman numeral (or scale degree) marks the chord root’s position in the scale.