G♭m7

G♭1B♭♭♭3D♭5F♭♭7

Minor triad with a minor seventh. The same four notes as a major sixth chord a third above.

Written the other way round it is F♯m7 — the same twelve keys on a piano, a different piece of notation.

on guitar on piano the scale

Every fingering that fits a hand

Fig. 2

x657

easy · no 5

Fig. 3

b9cc

hard · no 5

Fig. 4

b9c9

hard · no 5

Fig. 5

b9cx

easy · no 5

What is true of it

G♭m7 is G♭, B♭♭, D♭ and F♭ — 1, b3, 5 and b7 counted from G♭.

B♭♭ is a double flat, and it has to be: every letter from G♭ upwards is used once, so the b3 cannot be written any other way.

These are also the notes of A6/G♭. Which name is right depends on what is underneath and what came before — the notes alone do not decide.

On an instrument that cannot reach all 4, the 5 goes first, in that order.

The easiest of the 4 fingerings below is x657: 3 fingers, held at the 5th fret.

None of them uses an open string, so this chord moves up the neck unchanged — the same shape 1 fret higher is the chord a semitone above.

It leaves out the 5. 4 strings cannot carry 4 notes, and the 5 is the one this chord can lose without changing what it is.

1 string stays silent.

Where its notes are on the neck

Fig. 6 — first 12 frets

The brass dots are G♭, the root. Everything else is a chord tone with its degree printed in it.

With a different note underneath

first inversion

G♭m7/B♭♭

2420

second inversion

G♭m7/D♭

6657

third inversion

G♭m7/F♭

9999

An inversion is the same chord with a different note lowest. The name changes to a slash name because the bass is what a listener hears as the foundation.

G♭ in other shapes

G♭7dominant seventh G♭maj7major seventh G♭m(maj7)minor major seventh G♭major G♭mminor G♭dimdiminished

Cm7 C♯m7 D♭m7 Dm7 D♯m7 E♭m7 Em7 Fm7 all 374