F#dim 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 F#dim — open string voicings
F#dim is F#, A and C — F#m 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.
F#dim notes and formula
| F# | A | C |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 |
Unstable — it does not sit still.
Also written F#°, F#o or F# diminished. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F#dim
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.
F#dim has 6 of them, on strings 6-5-4-3-2, strings 5-4-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from the 2nd fret up to the 5th — every inversion the chord has: F# in the bass and A in the bass. The one to learn first is the F# shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
3 of them sit on strings 6-5-4-3-2, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with 20x21x — 1 open string and only 3 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 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20x21x | open position | F#, root position | C | 1 open string |
| xx45x5 | 4th fret | F#, root position | A | all fretted |
| x97x78 | 7th fret | F#, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-9-10-11-10-x | 9th fret | F#, root position | A | all fretted |
| 14-12-x-14-13-x | 12th fret | F#, root position | C | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 47 triad voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of F#dim, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 11 (B) and the b13 (D).
How to use F#dim
In which keys. Every note of F#dim belongs to E minor (the ii°, the supertonic) and G major (the vii°, the leading tone).
What to play over F#dim
Every note of F#dim is in F# blues, F# locrian, F# altered, F# diminished and F# half-whole diminished.
Chords near F#dim
Change one note of F#dim and you have F#m (the flat fifth becomes a fifth), F#dim7 (add the sixth), F#m7b5 (add the flat seventh) or F#mMaj7b5 (add the major seventh).
F#dim is a diminished chord — root, minor third, flat fifth. Diminished and half-diminished chords on every root.
On F#dim’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.