Ddim7 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Ddim7 — shell voicings
Ddim7 is D, F, Ab and Cb — Ddim 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.
Ddim7 notes and formula
| D | F | Ab | Cb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | ♭♭7 |
Leading-tone or passing chord — it can resolve almost anywhere.
Also written D°7, Do7 or D diminished 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ddim7
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
Ddim7 has 6 of them, on the top four strings, strings 5-3-2-1, strings 6-4-3-2, the middle four strings and the bottom four strings, from the 4th fret up to the 10th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the D shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx0101 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 8 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx0101 | open position | D, root position | F | 2 open strings |
| xx3434 | 3rd fret | F, 1st inversion | Ab | all fretted |
| x56464 | 4th fret | D, root position | Ab | all fretted |
| xx6767 | 6th fret | Ab, 2nd inversion | Cb | all fretted |
| x-8-0-10-9-7 | 7th fret | F, 1st inversion | Cb | 1 open string |
| 10-x-9-10-9-10 | 9th fret | D, root position | D | barred |
| 10-11-12-10-12-10 | 10th fret | D, root position | D | barred |
| x-x-12-13-12-13 | 12th fret | D, root position | F | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 15 drop 2, 10 drop 3 and 5 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Ddim7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (E), the 11 (G), the b13 (Bb) and the maj7 (C#).
How to use Ddim7
A diminished seventh divides the octave evenly, so Ddim7 has no single root and no single destination: it can lead to G or to Eb, and it is the same four notes either way.
What to play over Ddim7
Every note of Ddim7 is in D diminished and D half-whole diminished.
Chords near Ddim7
Change one note of Ddim7 and you have Ddim (drop the sixth), Dm6 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), Dm7b5 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh) or DmMaj7b5 (the sixth becomes a major seventh).
Ddim7 is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
On Ddim7’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.