Dm7 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 Dm7 — shell voicings
Dm7 is D, F, A and C — Dm with the flat seventh added.
It sounds smooth and unhurried. The workhorse of the family, and the chord soul, funk and jazz comp on more than any other.
Pre-dominant — the ii of a major key, and a tonic in its own right.
Dm7 notes and formula
| D | F | A | C |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | ♭7 |
Also written Dmin7, D-7 or D minor 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Dm7
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.
Dm7 has 6 of them, on the low-middle three, the bottom three strings, strings 5-3-2 and strings 6-4-3, from the 3rd 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 3rd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Play Dm7 as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 9 (E), the 11 (G) or the 13 (B).
All 7 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- xx0211, open position, D, root position, top note F, 1 open string
- x5353x, 3rd fret, D, root position, top note D, all fretted
- x5356x, 3rd fret, D, root position, top note F, all fretted
- x57565, 5th fret, D, root position, top note A, barred
- xx7768, 6th fret, A, 2nd inversion, top note C, all fretted
- 10-12-10-10-10-10, 10th fret, D, root position, top note D, barred
- x-x-12-14-13-13, 12th fret, D, root position, top note F, all fretted
How to use Dm7
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Dm7 is Em7♭5 to A7♭9: the ii and the V of D minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Dm7 belongs to C major (the ii), D minor (the i), F major (the vi), G minor (the v), A minor (the iv) and Bb major (the iii).
What to play over Dm7
Every note of Dm7 is in D minor pentatonic, D blues, D dorian, D natural minor and D phrygian.
Chords near Dm7
Change one note of Dm7 and you have Dm (drop the flat seventh), Dm6 (the flat seventh becomes the sixth), Dm7b5 (the fifth becomes the flat fifth), Dm9 (add the ninth), DmMaj7 (the flat seventh becomes the major seventh) or Dmadd9 (the flat seventh becomes the ninth).
Dm7 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor 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.