half diminished chord formula

[mescandon]

Hello.
I'm finally trying to learn chord theory but i'm a little confused.

In the example for half diminished chords, the lesson stated that for the B half diminished, the interval from F to A is a major 3rd.
In that case why is the formula written 1 b3 b5 b7?

I thought the "b" is only used when showing an interval of 3 half-steps.

Shouldn't it be 1 b3 b5 7?


In case this seems like a stupid question...I'm a slow learner so be patient with me .

[m78w]

Hey,
The intervals 1 b3 b5 b7 are right, but they are all in compared to the 1, the root.

So a Bm7b5 chord is B D F A

B - D is a b3

B-F is a b5

B-A is a b7

There are intervals between each note, but when building the chord we are more concerned with the intervals between each note and the root. Hope that helps!

MW

[Joe Dalton]

I think there is some confusion, both are right.
Matt means b7 as a minor 7 you think 7 is minor 7 and b7 is diminished 7 or major 6.
You both however mean a full note distance between root and 7.

While in chords a b7 is written simply as A7 for example when talking about intervals we tend to call it a b7. Hope that clears it up.

So to write out the intervals in a half dim
root minor3 diminished5 minor7

[mescandon]

This is why it took me 10 years to get just basic music out of my guitar. And it will take another 10 years for me to make chord melodies. Majors, Minors, Dim's, Augs,... half step here, whole step there...
Music theory is really hard!

Thanks for the help guys.