The Flat 5th Chord – Use It Sparingly!

Good morning this is Duane, and we’re doing a series called Good Stuff You Really Ought To Know About Music, dealing with music theory and all it’s ramifications. Today I’d like to take up a very little used chord called the Flat 5th chord. If diminished and augmented chords are the salt and pepper of music, and they are, you don’t make a meal out of diminished and augmented chords. You make meals out of major and minor chords. If they’re the salt and pepper, then the Flat 5th is maybe the horseradish, you sure don’t want much of it, but you can use a little bit of it.

What is a Flat 5th? Any triad, if you lower the 5th, that’s all it is. It’s usually used in combination with other chords, other chord notes such as 7th. Let me give you an example. Say I’m playing an old tune called, “That’s All,” and I’ll come back to that chord. Now I’ve used it twice in that context so far. I’ve used it in the very first chord. The melody is “G”, but the chord “B” flat 7th.

What I’m doing is lowering the 5th, that’s the Flat 5th, and that’s the third of course, and that’s a Flat 9th. See 9th Flat, so that’s a Flat 5, Flat 9 chord. It is combined with the 7th though isn’t it? You’ve got a pretty complex chord there. Another way of looking at it is that’s “B” flat 7th in the left hand with “G” major 6th over it. Most people don’t look at it that way, they like to call it a Flat 9, Flat 5 chord. When I say other people I mean other musicians. Let me continue from there.

That a Flat 5, no. There it is. This chord is “C” 7th with a Flat 9, and I’m using a Flat 5th, and then I’m using it as a passing tone. There’s that chord again with the Flat 5th. I could use it there, I use it as a passing tone right there, a flat. I could use it as passing tone in there, but I don’t know if that works too well. There I made a run out of the Flat 5th chord, that’s that same chord we started with, and so on. It’s a very little used chord, but you really ought to know about it, because you do run into it. The notation in chord symbols would be a Flat sign before 5, or a Minus sign before 5, and that means Flat the 5th, or lower the 5th.

Okay, that’s it for today. If you like these little tips, and find them helpful, come on over to Play Piano, and sign up for our whole series. Hope to see you there. Thank you, bye-bye for now.

***For lots more good stuff on piano playing come on over to my website at https://www.playpiano.com and sign up for our free piano tips – “Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions!”

Here’s a great little book on chords and chord progressions on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Chords-Chord-Progressions-Exciting-ebook/dp/B0076OUGDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404158669&sr=1-1&keywords=piano+chords+duane+shinn

Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdvXUct7t_M&feature=youtu.be

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