Sevenths
D diminished 7th chord
Symmetrical and very tense — every note is a minor 3rd apart.
Ddim7 is the vii°7 chord in E♭ minor.
- Notes
- DFA♭C♭
- Formula
- 1♭3♭5𝄫7
- Built from
- root · minor 3rd · diminished 5th · diminished 7th
How to play Ddim7
About the D diminished 7th chord
Playing it
On guitar, Ddim7 is one of the friendlier shapes: xx0101 needs just two fingers and lets the open strings ring. Don’t strum the low E and A strings.
On piano, Ddim7 has one black key (A♭) and three white keys.
On ukulele the usual Ddim7 shape is 1212, using four fingers.
Related chords
Take away the root and the other three notes form Fdim (F A♭ C♭) — so you can think of Ddim7 as Fdim with D added underneath.
Ddim7 is symmetrical — its notes are evenly spaced — so Fdim7, A♭dim7 and Bdim7 contain exactly the same notes. There are only three different-sounding diminished 7th chords in all.
Move a single note and Ddim7 becomes a different chord: drop the C♭ for Ddim, raise A♭ to A for Dm6 and raise C♭ to C for Dm7♭5.
Where you’ll hear it
Notice the C♭ in Ddim7 (D F A♭ C♭): each note of the chord takes its own letter (D–F–A–C), so the diminished 7th has to be written C♭ rather than B — the same key on a piano, spelled to fit the chord.
