Abdim guitar chord
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. Because it costs no finger, it sounds a note the closed shape has none left for -- a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath. Either a familiar grip with open strings added, or a shape so sparse the open strings carry the chord. These belong to their key rather than to a shape, so D, A, G and E have many and Eb a handful.
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About Abdim — open string voicings
Abdim is Ab, Cb and D — Abm with the fifth lowered as well.
It sounds compressed and unstable in every direction. Rarely a destination; it is where a line passes through on the way somewhere.
Abdim notes and formula
| Ab | Cb | D |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 |
Unstable — it does not sit still.
Also written Ab°, Abo or Ab diminished. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abdim
An open string left ringing against a fretted grip. It costs no finger, so it can sound a note the closed shape has none left for: a tension on top, or a pedal root underneath.
These belong to their key rather than to a shape: they cannot be moved up the neck. D, A, G and E have many; E♭ has a handful.
Abdim has 6 of them, on strings 6-5-4-3-2-1, the top four strings and strings 6-4-3-2-1, from the 2nd fret up to the 6th — every inversion the chord has: Ab in the bass, Cb in the bass and Ebb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Ebb shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx67x7 — only 3 fretted notes. None of the shapes for Abdim uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. None of them needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42x43x | 2nd fret | Ab, root position | D | all fretted |
| xx67x7 | 6th fret | Ab, root position | Cb | all fretted |
| x-11-9-x-9-10 | 9th fret | Ab, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-11-12-13-12-x | 11th fret | Ab, root position | Cb | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 46 triad voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Abdim, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (Db) and the b13 (Fb).
How to use Abdim
In which keys. Every note of Abdim belongs to F# minor (the ii°, the supertonic) and A major (the vii°, the leading tone).
What to play over Abdim
Every note of Abdim is in Ab blues, Ab locrian, Ab altered, Ab diminished and Ab half-whole diminished.
Chords near Abdim
Change one note of Abdim and you have Abm (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), Abdim7 (add the sixth), Abm7b5 (add the flat seventh) or AbmMaj7b5 (add the major seventh).
Abdim is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
On Abdim’s sound and use this page follows Stefan Kostka, Dorothy Payne & Byron Almén, Tonal Harmony (McGraw-Hill, 8th ed., 2018). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.