A 7b5, as the Armonía Takes It

The grip Vihuela uses for A 7b5, and the job it is doing while the chord sounds.

A 7b5 chord diagram, starting at fret 1. Strings low to high: A open, D 1st fret, G open, B 2nd fret, E 5th fret.

A 7b5 spells A – C# – Eb – G. Which of those tones reach the air, and in what register, is decided by the section holding them — so the grip below is the answer for one instrument in one section, not a universal fingering.

Inside the armonía this instrument is the top of the armonía — five re-entrant strings whose open third is the highest open pitch on the instrument, so every strum lands as one tight treble block instead of a spread stack, and the shape below is not a voicing choice so much as a section instruction — the whole armonía strikes the same mánico in unison, on the same slot, or the chord stops being one event.

Every shape is drawn for A–D–G–B–E across 5 strings, open positions first and movable ones after them, each with playback. The tuning is re-entrant — string 3 carries the highest open pitch on the instrument, not the last one — so a familiar grip comes out as a closed block rather than a spread stack.