Modern Blues

M7B5 Chord

Before we dive into how to play the track, we need to work through the concept of the minor 7th flat 5th chord. Quite a mouthful eh? So first up, let's talk theory, what is a m7b5 chord? Here is the chord spelling:

So, this clarifies the fact that this chord is based on a diminished chord with an additional 7th note. However, unlike the major 7th or minor 7th, we can't call this a "Diminished 7th", that's a different chord (we'll get to that in a sec). Instead, we refer to this as either a **"half-diminished" or a "m7b5" chord. Both are exactly the same, just a different name for it. To clarify, we call this a half-diminished because a whole diminished needs to be made up of notes a minor 3rd apart. We will talk about this in-depth in Unit 3, so don't worry for now.

so, why are we using this chord?

Good question! The answer is simple - The m7b5 chord can be almost identical in notes to the dominant 9th chord major 3rd below it. Here is the rule to remember:

From the root of your dominant chord, move up a major 3rd. This new starting note is the root of your half-diminished (m7b5) chord.

Notice how the fretboard shapes look identical except that the Bb9 has an additional Bb note in it. You can see it even better from the chord spelling:

So, following this rule, whenever you are playing a dominant chord in your blues, you can substitute it for a half-diminished (m7b5... whatever you prefer to call it!). The final thing is to learn and master those 2 shapes we use in the track, which we have as chord boxes here. Get those learnt and we'll move on to the next lesson.

Groove and Chords

Let's now tackle the trickiest part of the whole thing, the groove with the chords! In my opinion, the groove part is a tricky skill to master, but we'll break it down very slowly. Let's focus first on the very first bar of the groove:

In the video we go into a great amount of depth working through the exact placements for the hits and pops and slaps on each chord, which is harder to put into writing, so please be sure to spend a great amount of time working through the video in-depth! The key is to master the groove on this first bar, using the cool chord shapes, which you can see in the fretboard diagrams here.

Finally, let's put these chords in a chord chart so we can clearly see how they all fit together. It's worth noting that this is essentially a standard 12 bar blues, just with the addition of all of these substitute chord voicings, which is mega fun! For the purpose of the chord chart, we will just use the basic dominant 7th or 9th chords.

The Solo

Next up it's time to tackle the solo that we are playing over the top of this cool modern blues track. We will be using some really cool concepts within this track, including highlighting the m7b5 arpeggios and even bringing in elements of the Mixolydian mode. Let's break it down lick by lick, using the tab as a reference as we go through the track.

grounding...

The solo is based around the key of Bb blues, and we are using a combination of three key ideas: The major and minor pentatonic crossover, the m7b5 arpeggios and the Mixolydian scale. Lick 1, 2 and 3 really beautifully demonstrate how we blend the three ideas, so let's be sure to reference these scale shapes as we work through those first three licks!

For those of you who have never studied or come across the Mixolydian scale, it's pretty cool. First up, we will have a full Mixolydian course studying this mode in detail, so check that out for a deep understanding. For now, though, the Mixolydian mode is essentially a major scale with a flattened 7th, like this:

This modal scale is therefore a perfect fit over your dominant 7th chord as we use a 1, 3, 5 and b7 in our dominant chords, which fit perfectly into this scale. The theory can be as simple as that, so let's see what we can do with it!

More Scales

As well as the Mixolydian, we'll be using the minor and major pentatonic scale shapes and the m7b5 arpeggios, which are shown in the fretboard diagrams.

We highly recommend taking the time to learn the m7b5 and Mixolydian shapes, as these can be so useful in your improvisation! We'll talk in more depth about them in the next lesson!

Minor 7 Flat 5

In the previous lesson we began to look at the minor 7 flat 5 arpeggios, which are built-in exactly the same way as the chord (As we covered a few lessons ago). I think it is now important to go over again just how you can use them in a soloing format in a blues progression. The key thing to remember is this:

From the root of your dominant chord, move up a major 3rd. This new starting note is the root of your half-diminished (m7b5) chord.

So, the example used in the solo is when we are playing over the Bb7 dominant 7th chord. Instead of using a Bb7 arpeggio we simply move up a major third to D and use the Dm7b5 (half diminished) arpeggio over the top. It instantly adds a jazzy flavour, and pulls you away from that more standard blues sound, if only for a minute! Once again, refer to the shapes in the previous lesson as you navigate the first half of the solo and be sure to memorise those shapes! Here's the Tab for your reference:

Solo Complete!

As we move into the second half of the solo, we need to still be aware of those three key ideas we are working with. In this section, we focus more on the Mixolydian and pentatonic concepts rather than overindulge in the m7b5 (this can come later if you choose!). As well as the scale shapes we talked about before, we are also changing position on the fretboard, and therefore working with new pentatonic shapes. We are using shapes 4 in major and 3 in minor, as pictured here. As you work through the solo, always keep one eye on the shapes you are using, so that you can learn to transpose these in the future!