Guitar chord · Sevenths
C diminished 7th chord on guitar
8-9-10-8-10-8 · Barre · 8th fret
All 6 shapes, tab & fingering ↓
6 ways to play Cdim7 on guitar, with finger positions, tabs and step-by-step instructions.
Symmetrical and very tense — every note is a minor 3rd apart.
Cdim7 is the vii°7 chord in C♯ minor.
- Notes
- CE♭G♭B𝄫
- Formula
- 1♭3♭5𝄫7
- Built from
- root · minor 3rd · diminished 5th · diminished 7th
Guitar
Standard tuning (E A D G B E) · 6 voicings · E string on the left · Other tunings →
How to play it · Barre · 8th fret
- Lay your index finger (1) flat across 6 strings at the 8th fret — this is the barre.
- 6th string (low E): 8th fret, held by the barre C
- 5th string (A): 9th fret, middle finger (2) G♭
- 4th string (D): 10th fret, ring finger (3) C
- 3rd string (G): 8th fret, held by the barre E♭
- 2nd string (B): 10th fret, pinky finger (4) B𝄫
- 1st string (high E): 8th fret, held by the barre C
Tablature
e|--8---| B|--10--| G|--8---| D|--10--| A|--9---| E|--8---|
Top line is the high E string. x = don’t play, 0 = open string.
Every Cdim7 note on the guitar neck
Bright dots are the selected voicing — the rest are other places you can find the same chord tones.
Tips for playing Cdim7 on guitar
There’s no open-string way to play Cdim7 on guitar with the root in the bass, so the standard shape is a barre across the 8th fret (8-9-10-8-10-8).
Notice the B𝄫 in Cdim7 (C E♭ G♭ B𝄫): each note of the chord takes its own letter (C–E–G–B), so the diminished 7th has to be written B𝄫 rather than A — the same key on a piano, spelled to fit the chord.
