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The Dm7b5 chord on guitar: D half-diminished, open and movable

Dm7b5 sounds unfinished on purpose. It is a D minor seventh with its fifth lowered by a fret, and that one flat note makes the chord lean forward, toward G7 and then C minor. Learn it in that context and it stops being a strange jazz symbol and becomes a chord you hear coming.

Dm7b5 chord: notes and shapes at a glance

  • Name: D half-diminished (minor seventh flat five)
  • Symbol: Dm7b5
  • Notes: D, F, Ab, C
  • Where it belongs: viim7b5 in Eb major, iim7b5 in C minor

Each shape below is written from the thickest string to the thinnest: a number is the fret, 0 an open string, x a string you do not play. New to this? See how to read chord diagrams.

Shape Frets, low E to high E Notes, low to high What it is for
Dm7b5, open xx0111 D Ab C F The easiest Dm7b5: the open D string under a small first finger barre at fret 1.
Dm7b5, root on the A string x5656x D Ab C F The movable shape. Slide it anywhere to get any m7b5 chord, root on the fifth string.
Dm7b5, spread voicing x5x564 D C F Ab Root on the A string, Ab on top. The muted D string gives it a more open, jazz sound.
Dm7b5, open x x 0 1 1 1 · · · 1 1 1 fingers
Dm7b5, root on the A string x 5 6 5 6 x · 1 3 2 4 · fingers
Dm7b5, spread voicing x 5 x 5 6 4 · 2 · 3 4 1 fingers

Read each diagram from the thickest string on the left to the thinnest on the right. A cross means the string is not played, a circle means it rings open.

Dm7b5 on the neck: every D, F, Ab, C

Standard tuning, frets 0 to 12. The highlighted notes are the notes of Dm7b5: any shape you build from them, anywhere on the neck, is still Dm7b5.

Fretboard notes
Swipe the fretboard sideways to see every fret.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
1 - E
E
F
Gb
G
Ab
A
Bb
B
C
Db
D
Eb
E
2 - B
B
C
Db
D
Eb
E
F
Gb
G
Ab
A
Bb
B
3 - G
G
Ab
A
Bb
B
C
Db
D
Eb
E
F
Gb
G
4 - D
D
Eb
E
F
Gb
G
Ab
A
Bb
B
C
Db
D
5 - A
A
Bb
B
C
Db
D
Eb
E
F
Gb
G
Ab
A
6 - E
E
F
Gb
G
Ab
A
Bb
B
C
Db
D
Eb
E

From Dm7 to Dm7b5: one fret

The quickest way to understand the chord is to start from the Dm7 chord you may already know.

Chord Notes Shape
Dm7 D, F, A, C xx0211
Dm7b5 D, F, Ab, C xx0111

Only the G string moves, from fret 2 (A) to fret 1 (Ab). Play the two shapes back to back and listen: Dm7 settles, Dm7b5 asks a question.

To play xx0111, roll the first finger flat across the top three strings at fret 1, close to the fret wire. Pick each string on its own: the G string is the one that tends to go dead under the joint of the finger.

The minor ii-V-i: why Dm7b5 exists

In C minor, the chord built on the second degree is not a plain minor chord: it is Dm7b5. It leads to G7, the V7, which pulls back to C minor. That three chord move is the minor counterpart of Dm7, G7, C in C major, and it is everywhere in jazz, bossa nova and ballads.

Position Dm7b5 G7 Cm
Open xx0111 320001 x35543
Frets 3 to 6 x5656x 3x343x x35543

The second line keeps the hand in one area of the neck, which is how jazz players connect these chords. Practice it slowly with a steady pulse: two beats per chord, then one.

One shape, every m7b5 chord

The x5656x shape is movable: the root is the note on the A string. Two frets lower, x3434x is Cm7b5; two frets higher, x7878x is Em7b5.

There is also a version with the root on the low E string, at the tenth fret: low E string fret 10 (D), A string muted, D string fret 10 (C), G string fret 10 (F), B string fret 9 (Ab), high E muted. Written as frets, 10 x 10 10 9 x. It sounds dense and dark, and it is the shape to use when the next chord sits on the sixth string.

One last detail worth knowing: the four notes of Dm7b5, D, F, Ab and C, are exactly the notes of Fm6. Same sound, two names, depending on which note the song treats as home.

Frequently asked questions

What notes are in a Dm7b5 chord?
Four: D, F, Ab and C. D is the root, F the minor third, Ab the flat fifth and C the minor seventh. The formula is 1, b3, b5, b7.
How do you play Dm7b5 on guitar?
The easiest shape is xx0111: lay the first finger across the G, B and high E strings at fret 1 and let the open D ring. Do not play the two bass strings. Higher up, x5656x is the movable version with the root on the A string.
Is Dm7b5 the same as D half-diminished?
Yes. Dm7b5, Dø7 and D half-diminished are three names for the same chord. It is called half-diminished because only the triad (D, F, Ab) is diminished; the seventh, C, is a minor seventh, not the diminished seventh (Cb) of a full Ddim7.
What is the difference between Dm7 and Dm7b5?
One note. Dm7 is D, F, A, C; Dm7b5 lowers the A to Ab. On the guitar that is one fret on the G string: xx0211 becomes xx0111.
Where is Dm7b5 used?
Mostly as the ii chord of C minor, in the progression Dm7b5, G7, Cm. It also belongs to E flat major as the chord built on the seventh degree.
Yohann Abbou, guitar teacher and founder of Guitar Social Club

Who made this

Guitar Social Club is the work of Yohann Abbou, a guitar teacher in Paris who teaches adults. Every shape on this page is written string by string and checked against standard tuning, and the diagrams are drawn from those same fret numbers. The rest of our free guitar tools, including the chord finder, work the same way.

More about Yohann on his page, and about why Guitar Social Club exists.