D#5 — D# power chord chord
Root and fifth only. The third is left out, so the chord is neither major nor minor and the same shape works over either.
- 1 = D#
- 5 = A#
- Symbol
- D#5
- Root
- D#
- Quality
- Power chord
- Family
- triad
- Notes
- D# A#
- Degree formula
1 5- Semitones from the root
0 7- Distinct pitch classes
- 2
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 7 semitones
- Notation
- Written 5. Two notes, usually doubled at the octave on the lowest strings, and the standard shape of distorted rock rhythm playing.
- Key
- D# · Eb major / C minor key signature
Fingering charts
The library holds 4 fingerings of this chord and all of them are shown, in the library’s own order. Several fingerings of one chord is normal: the same notes can be stopped at different positions and on different strings.
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 |
| 5 | A# | 7 | Perfect fifth |
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# – A# | 0 7 |
| first inversion | A# | 5 | A# – D# | 0 5 |
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 | 11-13-13-15-11-11 | D# A# D# A# A# D# | 1 5 1 5 5 1 | D# | 4 | 6 |
| 2 | x-6-8-8-4-6 | x D# A# D# D# A# | x 1 5 1 1 5 | D# | 4 | 5 |
| 3 | 11-13-13-15-11-x | D# A# D# A# A# x | 1 5 1 5 5 x | D# | 4 | 5 |
| 4 | x-6-8-8-4-x | x D# A# D# D# x | x 1 5 1 1 x | D# | 4 | 4 |
| 5 | x-x-13-15-11-11 | x x D# A# A# D# | x x 1 5 5 1 | D# | 4 | 4 |
| 6 | 11-13-13-15-x-x | D# A# D# A# x x | 1 5 1 5 x x | D# | 4 | 4 |
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
- KeyEverything in D#
- ScaleD# major pentatonic
- ChordD#
- ChordD#7
Related
- ChordD# — Major
- ChordD#7 — Dominant seventh
- ChordD#aug — Augmented
- ChordD#dim — Diminished
- ChordD#m — Minor
- DegreesEb — degree map
- Neck mapEb — note map
- KeyKey of Eb