F# maj7b5 — 5-String Banjo

F# maj7b5 stacks F# – A# – C – F. Each chart below places those tones on the 5-String Banjo's gDGBD strings and names the fret and finger holding each one — tap a chart to hear it.

The short g is not part of any shape — it sounds the same pitch whatever the left hand is doing, and the thumb reaches it constantly, so choosing a voicing here is partly choosing what you want ringing against a fixed drone.

Then hand it over: run one roll pattern through the shape slowly, thumb and fingers landing with the same weight, and only then think about changing chords. On this instrument the change that sounds late is almost never the left hand.