F#dim guitar chord
Three notes across one string set.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About F#dim — triad 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.
Unstable — it does not sit still.
F#dim notes and formula
| F# | A | C |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | ♭5 |
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
Three notes on one string set. No seventh, so nothing is claimed about the chord beyond its quality.
Thin on their own, excellent over a bass line or against someone else’s harmony.
F#dim has 47 of them, on the top three strings, the low-middle three, the bottom four strings, the bottom three strings, the high-middle three, the middle four strings, the top four strings, strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: F# in the bass, A in the bass and C in the bass. The one to learn first is the A shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
6 of them sit on the bottom four strings, 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.
Play F#dim as a shell — root, third and seventh — and the spare string takes the 11 (B) or the b13 (D).
All 5 common shapes as fret numbers, lowest string first. Hover or tap one to see it drawn.
- 20x21x, open position, F#, root position, top note C, 1 open string
- xx45x5, 4th fret, F#, root position, top note A, all fretted
- x97x78, 7th fret, F#, root position, top note C, all fretted
- x-9-10-11-10-x, 9th fret, F#, root position, top note A, all fretted
- 14-12-x-14-13-x, 12th fret, F#, root position, top note C, all fretted
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 the fifth), F#dim7 (add the diminished seventh), 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.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.