Ddim 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.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Ddim — open string voicings
Ddim is D, F and Ab — Dm 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.
Ddim notes and formula
| D | F | Ab |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 |
Unstable — it does not sit still.
Also written D°, Do or D diminished. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ddim
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.
Ddim has 2 of them, on the bottom four strings and strings 6-4-3-2, from the 3rd fret up to the 4th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the Ab shape at the 3rd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx01x1 — 1 open string and only 2 fretted notes. 1 of the 5 shapes here sits in open position. None of them needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx01x1 | open position | D, root position | F | 1 open string |
| x53x34 | 3rd fret | D, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| x5676x | 5th fret | D, root position | F | all fretted |
| 10-8-x-10-9-x | 8th fret | D, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| x-x-12-13-x-13 | 12th fret | D, root position | F | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 49 triad voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Ddim, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (G) and the b13 (Bb).
How to use Ddim
In which keys. Every note of Ddim belongs to C minor (the ii°, the supertonic) and Eb major (the vii°, the leading tone).
What to play over Ddim
Every note of Ddim is in D blues, D locrian, D altered, D diminished and D half-whole diminished.
Chords near Ddim
Change one note of Ddim and you have Dm (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), Ddim7 (add the sixth), Dm7b5 (add the flat seventh) or DmMaj7b5 (add the major seventh).
Ddim is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
On Ddim’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.