D13 guitar chord

3rd inversion · C in the bass
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About D13 — 3rd inversion

D13 is a dominant stretched across six different notes: D, F#, A, C, E and B. Its distant voices are and .

On guitar, keep the third and flat seventh, then make room by dropping the root or fifth. The upper voices can carry a jazz cadence around that shell.

Also written Ddom13 or D dominant 13.

D13 3rd inversion guitar chord diagram: D, F#, A, C, E, B, played x-x-10-9-7-7
D13 3rd inversion guitar chord voicing: x-x-10-9-7-7.

What 3rd inversion means

D13 in 3rd inversion puts C in the bass instead of D, the 7th 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.

6 of D13’s 15 shapes do this:x3443xx3447xx-x-10-9-7-7x-x-10-11-12-14x-x-10-11-12-10x-x-10-11-12-12

How to use D13

1The V of an extended ii–V–I

V in G major

In a jazz ii–V–I all three chords usually carry tensions: Am9, D13, Gmaj9 rather than bare sevenths. The thirteenth is the ii’s ninth held over the barline, and it falls a step to the ninth of the I.

Listen for: The ii’s ninth holds as the V’s thirteenth, then falls a whole step to the ninth of the I. Underneath, the guide tones step down as usual.

In which keys. Every note of D13 belongs to E minor and G major.

What to play over D13

Useful scales

Every scale

Chords near D13

Remove a note

Change one note

  • open strings
    open strings
    C → C#

    Raise the flat seventh to the major seventh.

    See Dmaj13 chord →
  • open strings
    open strings
    B → G#

    Replace the thirteenth with the sharp eleventh.

    See D9#11 chord →

Dominant seventh chords on every root

The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.

Midi Settings

7.5
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One pass of the pick from the lowest string up, everything left ringing.
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Style

Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.

Layout

Left Handed Mode