F#dim7 guitar chord

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About F#dim7 — uncommon voicings

F#dim7 adds to . Its four notes, F#, A, C and Eb, divide the octave into equal minor thirds.

Move the shape three frets and it repeats the same pitches under a new root name. That symmetry helps it connect steadier chords from several directions.

Also written F#°7, F#o7 or F# diminished 7.

F#dim7 uncommon guitar chord diagram: F#, A, C, Eb, played 2312xx
F#dim7 uncommon guitar chord voicing: 2-3-1-2-x-x.

What these less common shapes are

How to use F#dim7

1Between IV and I

IV – i°7 – I

F#dim7 shares its root with F# and slips in between B and the I. It isn’t a new harmony, only decoration: two notes hold, and the rest move by step into the home chord.

Listen for: The IV’s root rises a half step, then another, into the fifth of the I, over a bass that never moves.

Heard in“True Love”“Calendar Girl”“Daydream”

2Leading into the chord a half step up

I – ♯i°7 – ii

F#dim7 is the dominant seventh flat nine of the chord a half step above it, with the root left out. Any of its four notes can be the one that rises, so it can lead into four chords; between Fmaj7 and Gm7 it walks the bass up by half steps.

Listen for: The bass climbs a half step at a time, from the root of the I to the root of the ii.

Other uses

From the books, without a worked example
  • The vii°7 of a minor key
    vii°7 – i

    F#dim7 occurs naturally in G minor: the harmonic minor scale builds it on the leading tone, a half step below Gm.

    1. F#dim7
    2. Gm
  • A way into a new key
    a modulation

    Played after F#maj7, F#dim7 can lead into Gmaj7, and so into a new key a half step up. Since any of its notes can act as the leading tone, one diminished chord can lead into four keys.

    1. F#maj7
    2. F#dim7
    3. Gmaj7
  • Alternating with a sixth chord
    I6 – vii°7 – I6

    Alternating G6 and F#dim7 is the sixth–diminished sound: the diminished chord is the V7♭9 of G6 with its root left out.

    1. G6
    2. F#dim7
    3. G6

    Go to the G6 page to hear it →

What to play over F#dim7

Useful scales

Every scale

Chords near F#dim7

Remove a note

Change one note

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.

Midi Settings

7.5
Play Style
One pass of the pick from the lowest string up, everything left ringing.
Instrument
350
150

Style

Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.

Layout

Left Handed Mode