Ebm7b5 has two useful names. “Minor seven flat five” describes Eb, Gb, Bbb and Db; “half-diminished” distinguishes its flat seventh from a diminished seventh.
Its Bbb♭5 is the unsettled voice inside an otherwise familiar minor seventh frame. In a minor ii–V, that frame normally hands the phrase to V.
Also written Ebø, Ebø7, Ebm7-5, Ebm7(b5) or Eb half diminished.
Ebm7b5 in 2nd inversion puts Bbb in the bass instead of Eb, the 5th of the chord. The notes are the same; what changes is what the bass line does, which is most of why you would reach for it — it lets the lowest voice move by step where the root would have jumped.
4 of Ebm7b5’s 21 shapes do this:5x464xxx7679xx7879x-12-11-11-14-x
In a minor key the ii chord is half-diminished, and Ebm7b5 leads to the V and on to the i. Its flat fifth is the key’s flat sixth: it holds as the dominant’s flat nine, then falls to the fifth of the home chord, whether that chord is minor or major.
Listen for: The flat fifth holds over the barline as the dominant’s flat nine, then falls a half step to the fifth.
Heard in“There Will Never Be Another You”“Night and Day”, resolving to major
In a major key Ebm7b5 is built on the leading tone and does the dominant’s job. Lower its seventh a whole step and it becomes B7; its bass, the leading tone, then rises into the root of E.
Listen for: Only the seventh moves at first, down a whole step, and the chord is the V7. That note then holds as the fifth of the I.
In the basic turnaround in F♯ minor, Ebm7b5 is the second chord, between the i and the ii.
A turnaround in B major can start on the iii instead of the I, and that iii can be played as Ebm7b5, in front of an altered VI7.
In which keys. Every note of Ebm7b5 belongs to C# minor and E major.
Contains Ebm7b5 and adds eleventh and fifth.
Contains Ebm7b5 and adds flat ninth, eleventh and sharp fifth.
Contains Ebm7b5 and adds flat ninth, major third and sharp fifth.
Contains Ebm7b5 and adds flat ninth, major third, fifth and thirteenth.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.
Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.