Sevenths
D♭ major 7th chord
Lush and mellow — a signature sound of jazz, soul and bossa nova.
D♭maj7 is the Imaj7 chord in D♭ major and IVmaj7 in A♭ major. In minor keys: IIImaj7 in B♭ minor and VImaj7 in F minor.
- Notes
- D♭FA♭C
- Formula
- 1357
- Built from
- root · major 3rd · perfect 5th · major 7th
How to play D♭maj7
About the D♭ major 7th chord
D♭maj7 is a favorite of neo-soul and jazz players — lush and warm, and it sits naturally on the piano’s black keys.
Playing it
There’s no open-string way to play D♭maj7 on guitar with the root in the bass, so the standard shape is a barre across the 4th fret (x46564).
On piano, D♭maj7 has two black keys (D♭ and A♭) and two white keys.
On ukulele the usual D♭maj7 shape is 1014, using three fingers.
Related chords
Take away the root and the other three notes form Fm (F A♭ C) — so you can think of D♭maj7 as Fm with D♭ added underneath.
Move a single note and D♭maj7 becomes a different chord: drop the C for D♭, lower C to C♭ for D♭7, swap C for B♭ for D♭6 and swap C for E♭ for D♭add9.
Where you’ll hear it
You’ll find D♭maj7 in common progressions such as D♯m7–G♯7–C♯maj7 (the jazz cadence in C♯ major).
