Sevenths
D♯ diminished 7th chord
Symmetrical and very tense — every note is a minor 3rd apart.
D♯dim7 is the vii°7 chord in E minor.
- Notes
- D♯F♯AC
- 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
On guitar, the usual D♯dim7 shape is xx1212 at the 1st fret. It has no open strings, so it’s a movable shape — slide it along the neck for other diminished 7th chords. Don’t strum the low E and A strings.
On piano, D♯dim7 has two black keys (D♯ and F♯) and two white keys.
On ukulele the usual D♯dim7 shape is 2323, using four 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 Cdim7, F♯dim7 and Adim7 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.
