Sevenths
D♭ diminished 7th chord
Symmetrical and very tense — every note is a minor 3rd apart.
D♭dim7 is the vii°7 chord in D minor.
- Notes
- D♭F♭A𝄫C𝄫
- Formula
- 1♭3♭5𝄫7
- Built from
- root · minor 3rd · diminished 5th · diminished 7th
How to play D♭dim7
About the D♭ diminished 7th chord
Playing it
There’s no open-string way to play D♭dim7 on guitar with the root in the bass, so the standard shape is a barre across the 9th fret (9-10-11-9-11-9).
On piano, D♭dim7 has two black keys (D♭ and C𝄫) and two white keys.
On ukulele the usual D♭dim7 shape is 0101, using two fingers.
Related chords
Take away the root and the other three notes form F♭dim (F♭ A𝄫 C𝄫) — so you can think of D♭dim7 as F♭dim with D♭ added underneath.
D♭dim7 is symmetrical — its notes are evenly spaced — so Edim7, Gdim7 and B♭dim7 contain exactly the same notes. There are only three different-sounding diminished 7th chords in all.
Move a single note and D♭dim7 becomes a different chord: drop the C𝄫 for D♭dim, raise A𝄫 to A♭ for D♭m6 and raise C𝄫 to C♭ for D♭m7♭5.
Where you’ll hear it
Notice the F♭ in D♭dim7 (D♭ F♭ A𝄫 C𝄫): each note of the chord takes its own letter (D–F–A–C), so the minor 3rd has to be written F♭ rather than E — the same key on a piano, spelled to fit the chord.
