Gdim — G diminished chord
Root, minor third and diminished fifth: two stacked minor thirds. The chord built on the seventh degree of a major scale.
- 1 = G
- b3 = Bb
- b5 = Db
- Symbol
- Gdim
- Root
- G
- Quality
- Diminished
- Family
- triad
- Notes
- G Bb Db
- 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
- G · G major / E 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 | G | 0 | Perfect unison |
| b3 | Bb | 3 | Minor third |
| b5 | Db | 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 | G | 1 | G – Bb – Db | 0 3 6 |
| first inversion | Bb | b3 | Bb – Db – G | 0 3 9 |
| second inversion | Db | b5 | Db – G – Bb | 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 | 3-4-5-3-2-3 | G C# G A# C# G | 1 b5 1 b3 b5 1 | G | 3 | 6 |
| 2 | 3-1-5-3-2-3 | G A# G A# C# G | 1 b3 1 b3 b5 1 | G | 4 | 6 |
| 3 | 3-4-5-3-2-6 | G C# G A# C# A# | 1 b5 1 b3 b5 b3 | G | 4 | 6 |
| 4 | 3-4-5-6-2-6 | G C# G C# C# A# | 1 b5 1 b5 b5 b3 | G | 4 | 6 |
| 5 | 15-13-11-12-11-15 | G A# C# G A# G | 1 b3 b5 1 b3 1 | G | 4 | 6 |
| 6 | 15-13-11-12-14-15 | G A# C# G C# G | 1 b3 b5 1 b5 1 | G | 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 G
- ScaleG diminished (whole-half)
- ChordGaug — Augmented
- ChordG — Major
- ChordGm — Minor
- DegreesG — degree map
- Neck mapG — note map
- ScaleG aeolian