Sevenths
G♯ diminished 7th chord
Symmetrical and very tense — every note is a minor 3rd apart.
G♯dim7 is the vii°7 chord in A minor.
- Notes
- G♯BDF
- Formula
- 1♭3♭5𝄫7
- Built from
- root · minor 3rd · diminished 5th · diminished 7th
How to play G♯dim7
About the G♯ diminished 7th chord
Playing it
On guitar, G♯dim7 has an open-position shape, 420101, using four fingers alongside the open strings.
On piano, G♯dim7 has one black key (G♯) and three white keys.
On ukulele the usual G♯dim7 shape is 1212, using four fingers.
Related chords
Take away the root and the other three notes form Bdim (B D F) — so you can think of G♯dim7 as Bdim with G♯ added underneath.
G♯dim7 is symmetrical — its notes are evenly spaced — so Ddim7, Fdim7 and Bdim7 contain exactly the same notes. There are only three different-sounding diminished 7th chords in all.
Move a single note and G♯dim7 becomes a different chord: drop the F for G♯dim, raise D to D♯ for G♯m6 and raise F to F♯ for G♯m7♭5.
