Ebdim7 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.
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About Ebdim7 — open string voicings
Ebdim7 is Eb, Gb, A and C — Ebdim 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.
Ebdim7 notes and formula
| Eb | Gb | A | C |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 | ♭♭7 |
Leading-tone or passing chord — it can resolve almost anywhere.
Also written Eb°7, Ebo7 or Eb diminished 7. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ebdim7
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.
Ebdim7 has 5 of them, on strings 6-5-4-3-2, strings 5-4-3-2-1 and the middle four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 5th — every inversion the chord has: Gb in the bass and Bbb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Bbb shape at the 4th fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx1212 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Ebdim7 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 2 of the 7 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx1212 | 1st fret | Eb, root position | Gb | all fretted |
| xx4545 | 4th fret | Gb, 1st inversion | A | all fretted |
| x67575 | 5th fret | Eb, root position | A | all fretted |
| xx7878 | 7th fret | Bbb, 2nd inversion | C | all fretted |
| 11-x-10-11-10-11 | 10th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | barred |
| 11-12-13-11-13-11 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | barred |
| x-x-13-14-13-14 | 13th fret | Eb, root position | Gb | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 14 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Ebdim7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (F), the 11 (Ab), the b13 (Cb) and the maj7 (D).
How to use Ebdim7
A diminished seventh divides the octave evenly, so Ebdim7 has no single root and no single destination: it can lead to Ab or to E, and it is the same four notes either way.
What to play over Ebdim7
Every note of Ebdim7 is in Eb diminished and Eb half-whole diminished.
Chords near Ebdim7
Change one note of Ebdim7 and you have Ebdim (drop the sixth), Ebm6 (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), Ebm7b5 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh) or EbmMaj7b5 (the sixth becomes a major seventh).
Ebdim7 is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
On Ebdim7’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.