B7alt: guitar chord voicings, inversions, scales and arpeggios

B7alt (7alt) is an interactive GuitarArcanum page with chord formula, intervals, voicings, inversions, triads, pentatonic patterns, scales and arpeggios on the fretboard.

Chord formula

Interval formula: 1 3 b7 b9 #9 b5 #5. An altered dominant — a dominant with its 9th and 5th altered (b9, #9, b5, #5). Maximum tension before a resolution.

Chord tones

The core is the 3rd–b7 tritone. Everything else is altered: the 9ths (b9, #9) and 5ths (b5/#5). You don't play them all — just the tritone plus a couple of alterations, often leaving the root to the bass.

Sound character

As tense and dark as a dominant gets — the sound of the altered scale (the 7th mode of the melodic minor).

Harmonic function

An altered dominant, usually the V before a minor or major tonic. The strongest pull there is.

Typical progressions

  • C#m7b5 – F#7alt – Bm
  • C#m7 – F#7alt – Bmaj7
  • F#7alt → C

Guitar voicing advice

Play the 3rd–b7 tritone plus one or two alterations, not everything at once. A handy grip: root in the bass, with 3, b7, b9, #5 on the guitar.

Compatible scales for B7alt

Other chord qualities on the B root

Compare this chord with other qualities sharing the same root.