D13 guitar chord

1 of 6
Inversion
  • Tap a note to hear it
  • Arrows change position
  • Fingers, notes or intervals
  • Play the chord

About D13uncommon voicings

D13 is D, F#, A, C, E and B with the thirteenth added on top.

It sounds big and open. Big-band and gospel comping reach for it wherever a plain 7 would sound bare.

Dominant — the full V chord.

Play it instead of a m7♭5 a major third above this root, something else has the bass, since that chord is this one without its root.

Also written Ddom13 or D dominant 13.

D13 uncommon guitar chord diagram: D, F#, A, C, E, B, played xx0412
D13 uncommon, xx0412 — the shape above, as a picture.

What these less common shapes are

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

Every note of D13 is in D mixolydian and D lydian dominant.

Each of those is a page: the scale across the neck, and the chords it harmonises into — which is where D13 sits in it. Every scale.

Chords near D13

Change one note of D13 and you have (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh), (drop the flat seventh), (drop the thirteenth) or (the thirteenth becomes the sharp eleventh).

D13 is a dominant chord — root, major third, fifth, minor seventh. 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
Play Style
One pass of the pick from the lowest string up, everything left ringing.
Instrument
350
150

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