Ddim — D diminished chord
Root, minor third and diminished fifth: two stacked minor thirds. The chord built on the seventh degree of a major scale.
- 1 = D
- b3 = F
- b5 = Ab
- Symbol
- Ddim
- Root
- D
- Quality
- Diminished
- Family
- triad
- Notes
- D F Ab
- Degree formula
1 b3 b5- Semitones from the root
0 3 6- Distinct pitch classes
- 3
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 3 semitones, 3 semitones
- Notation
- Written dim or with a degree sign, for example Cdim or Co.
- Key
- D · D major / B minor key signature
Formula
The chord tones in order from the root, with the interval each one forms above it.
| Degree | Note | Semitones | Interval from the root |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | D | 0 | Perfect unison |
| b3 | F | 3 | Minor third |
| b5 | Ab | 6 | Tritone |
Inversions
An inversion is the same set of notes with a different one in the bass. The last column gives the distance of each note above the bass note, in semitones.
| Inversion | Bass note | Degree in the bass | Notes above the bass | Semitones above the bass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| root position | D | 1 | D – F – Ab | 0 3 6 |
| first inversion | F | b3 | F – Ab – D | 0 3 9 |
| second inversion | Ab | b5 | Ab – D – F | 0 6 9 |
Playable voicings
These shapes were found by searching the fretboard of a standard-tuned guitar (E A D G B E) rather than copied from a chord book. The search allows every string to sound or to be muted, rejects any shape with a muted string between two sounding strings, rejects any shape whose fretted notes span more than four frets (a five-fret window), requires every chord tone to be present, and then sorts what remains with root-position shapes first and the most compact, lowest shapes next. The shapes shown are the first six of that ordering; other orderings are possible at the same frets.
| # | Shape (low string first) | Notes | Degrees | Bass | Span (frets) | Sounding strings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10-11-12-10-9-10 | D G# D F G# D | 1 b5 1 b3 b5 1 | D | 3 | 6 |
| 2 | 10-8-6-7-6-10 | D F G# D F D | 1 b3 b5 1 b3 1 | D | 4 | 6 |
| 3 | 10-8-6-7-9-10 | D F G# D G# D | 1 b3 b5 1 b5 1 | D | 4 | 6 |
| 4 | 10-8-6-10-6-10 | D F G# F F D | 1 b3 b5 b3 b3 1 | D | 4 | 6 |
| 5 | 10-8-6-10-9-10 | D F G# F G# D | 1 b3 b5 b3 b5 1 | D | 4 | 6 |
| 6 | 10-8-12-10-9-10 | D F D F G# D | 1 b3 1 b3 b5 1 | D | 4 | 6 |
Shape numbers run from the lowest string to the highest, so the left-hand number is the sixth string (low E) in standard tuning. Multiple shapes are listed because a chord can be voiced several ways, and because a lower position is not always the better sounding one.
Related chords and scales
Related
- KeyKey of D
- ScaleD diminished (whole-half)
- ChordDaug — Augmented
- ChordD — Major
- ChordDm — Minor
- DegreesD — degree map
- Neck mapD — note map
- ScaleD aeolian