Sevenths
E diminished 7th chord
Symmetrical and very tense — every note is a minor 3rd apart.
Edim7 is the vii°7 chord in F minor.
- Notes
- EGB♭D♭
- Formula
- 1♭3♭5𝄫7
- Built from
- root · minor 3rd · diminished 5th · diminished 7th
How to play Edim7
About the E diminished 7th chord
Playing it
On guitar, Edim7 has an open-position shape, 012020, using three fingers alongside the open strings.
On piano, Edim7 has two black keys (B♭ and D♭) and two white keys.
On ukulele the usual Edim7 shape is 0101, using two fingers.
Related chords
Take away the root and the other three notes form Gdim (G B♭ D♭) — so you can think of Edim7 as Gdim with E added underneath.
Edim7 is symmetrical — its notes are evenly spaced — so C♯dim7, 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 Edim7 becomes a different chord: drop the D♭ for Edim, raise B♭ to B for Em6 and raise D♭ to D for Em7♭5.
