D Minor guitar chord
The standard grips this chord is usually shown with.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Dm — 1st inversion
Dm is D, F and A — D with the third lowered a semitone.
It sounds darker than a major triad, and just as settled. The i of a minor key, and the vi, ii or iii of a major one.
Dm notes and formula
| D | F | A |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 |
Tonic — minor chords rest as readily as major ones.
Also written Dmin, D- or D minor. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Dm
Dm in 1st inversion puts F in the bass instead of D, the 3rd 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.
3 of Dm’s 10 common shapes do this: xx3231, x8776x, x-x-15-14-15-13.
Start with xx0231 — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 10 shapes here sits in open position. 2 of the 10 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx0231 | open position | D, root position | F | 1 open string |
| xx3231 | 1st fret | F, 1st inversion | F | all fretted |
| x5323x | 2nd fret | D, root position | D | all fretted |
| x57765 | 5th fret | D, root position | A | all fretted |
| x8776x | 6th fret | F, 1st inversion | F | all fretted |
| 10-8-7-7-x-10 | 7th fret | D, root position | D | all fretted |
| 10-12-12-10-10-10 | 10th fret | D, root position | D | barred |
| x-x-12-10-10-10 | 10th fret | D, root position | D | barred |
| x-x-12-14-15-13 | 12th fret | D, root position | F | all fretted |
| x-x-15-14-15-13 | 13th fret | F, 1st inversion | F | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 49 triad and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
How to use Dm
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Dm 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 Dm 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 Dm
Every note of Dm is in D minor pentatonic, D blues, D dorian, D natural minor and D phrygian.
Chords near Dm
Change one note of Dm and you have D (the minor third becomes a major third), Ddim (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Dsus2 (the minor third becomes a ninth), Dsus4 (the minor third becomes a fourth), Dm6 (add the sixth) or Dm7 (add the flat seventh).
Dm is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Dm’s sound and use this page follows Edward Aldwell & Carl Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading (Schirmer / Cengage, 4th ed., 2011). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.