Abdim7 guitar chord
The standard grips this chord is usually shown with.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Abdim7 — 1st inversion
Abdim7 is Ab, Cb, D and F — Abdim with a diminished seventh stacked on top.
It sounds suspenseful and rootless. Three stacked minor thirds divide the octave evenly, so the same four notes spell four dim7 chords and the shape repeats every three frets.
Abdim7 notes and formula
| Ab | Cb | D | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | ♭♭7 |
Leading-tone or passing chord — it can resolve almost anywhere.
Also written Ab°7, Abo7 or Ab diminished 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abdim7
Abdim7 in 1st inversion puts Cb in the bass instead of Ab, the 3rd 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.
One of Abdim7’s 7 common shapes does this: x-x-9-10-9-10.
Start with xx0101 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 7 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx0101 | open position | Ebb, 2nd inversion | F | 2 open strings |
| 4x3434 | 3rd fret | Ab, root position | Ab | barred |
| 456464 | 4th fret | Ab, root position | Ab | barred |
| xx6767 | 6th fret | Ab, root position | Cb | all fretted |
| x-x-9-10-9-10 | 9th fret | Cb, 1st inversion | D | all fretted |
| x-11-12-10-12-10 | 10th fret | Ab, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-x-12-13-12-13 | 12th fret | Ebb, 2nd inversion | F | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 15 drop 2, 10 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Abdim7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (Bb), the 11 (Db), the b13 (Fb) and the maj7 (G).
How to use Abdim7
A diminished seventh divides the octave evenly, so Abdim7 has no single root and no single destination: it can lead to Db or to A, and it is the same four notes either way.
What to play over Abdim7
Every note of Abdim7 is in Ab diminished and Ab half-whole diminished.
Chords near Abdim7
Change one note of Abdim7 and you have Abdim (drop the sixth), Abm6 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), Abm7b5 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh) or AbmMaj7b5 (the sixth becomes a major seventh).
Abdim7 is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
On Abdim7’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.