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Diminished Seventh Chords For Guitar (Dim7) - Drop 2 and Drop 3 Voicings

A diminished 7th chord is a four-note chord that consists of a stack of minor thirds.

It creates a tense, unresolved sound.

Diminished Seventh Chord Construction

Diminished seventh chords (dim7) are made up of a root (1), a minor third (b3), a diminished fifth (b5) and a diminished seventh (bb7).

They can be seen as a diminished triad (1-b3-b5) with an additional diminished seventh (bb7).

In other words, you have to stack four minor thirds (three semitones) to build them.

A diminished 7 A C Eb Gb
Formula 1 b3 b5 bb7

Symmetry

Dim7 chords are symmetrical, they are based on an equal division of the octave into four minor third intervals.

That means there are four different diminished chords in one position.

For example, C diminished 7th contains four notes : C, Eb, Gb and A.

Each note is separated by three semitones (minor thirds).

Because a dim7 chord is made up of four minor third intervals, so there are three other diminished seventh chords in the Cdim7 chord : Ebdim7, Ebdim7 and Adim7. 

C dim7  C Eb Gb A      
Eb dim7   Eb Gb A C    
Gb dim7     Gb A C Eb  
A dim7       A C Eb Gb

Comparison With Half-diminished Chords

Diminished 7 chords (dim7) can be confused wih half-diminished chords (m7b5).

The only difference is that half-diminished chords have a minor seventh (b7) instead of a diminished seventh (bb7). 

Comparison between diminished and half diminished chords

Comparison between diminished and half diminished

Comparison With Dominant 7 Chords

Keep in mind what's following, this could be very usefull for your guitar comping parts and chord melody arrangements.

If you lower any note of a diminished 7 chord by a half-step, you get a Dominant 7 chord.

Here are some examples of the possible connections between drop 2 chord voicings.

These examples are based on the same drop 2 diminished 7 shape voiced R (root), diminished fifth (b5), diminished seventh (bb7) and minor third (b3).

By lowering each voice of this chord your get four different drop 2 dominant 7 voicing shapes.

Diminished 7 chords comparison with dominant 8

Barry Harris Concept

Barry Harris taught that the fully diminished seventh chord lies at the heart of his harmonic system.

With small chromatic shifts to its notes, this chord smoothly transforms into dominant, minor 6, or major 6 harmonies.

✔︎ Lower one note of a diminished chord and it becomes a dominant chord (as explained above)
✔︎ Raise one note and it turns into a minor 6 chord.
✔︎ Lower two neighboring notes and you get a major 6 chord.
✔︎ Raise or lower two non-adjacent notes and it forms a dominant 7♭5 chord.

Through this lens, dominant 7, minor 6, and major 6 chords aren’t separate harmonic entities — they are simply different resolutions emerging from diminished movement.

Check the full lesson to dive in this concept explaining how to transform a diminished 7 chord.

Chord Substitutions

Diminished 7th chord are often used to replace dominant seventh flat ninth chords (7b9).

This is what we call "diminished chord substitution".

Example with a C major II-V-I progression :

Dm7 | G7 | CM7 becomes Dm7 | Bdim7 | CM7  |

Because of the symmetry of the diminished 7th chord there are three other possibilities Dm7 | Ddim7 | CM7 | or Dm7 | Fdim7 | CM7 or Dm7 | Abdim7 | CM7.

You can even try to replace the dominant 7th chord in a common I | VI | II | V turnaround sequence.

Example in the key of C major : CM7 | A7 | Dm7 | G7 | becomes CM7 | Dbdim7 | Dm7 | Bdim7 |. 

This lesson explains how to use a diminished 7 chord in four different ways.

Drop 2 Diminished 7th Chords

What Are Drop 2 Chords?

Drop 2 chords are the most popular chord voicings used in jazz guitar.

They are built by dropping the second highest note of a four-notes closed chord to the bass.

Diminished seventh close chord formula is R-b3-b5-bb7 that gives the following drop 2 chord formula b5 R b3 bb7. 

What's An Inverted Voicing?

It means that the notes of a chord are inverted.

The root of an inverted chord is not in the bass.

As you can see in the guitar diagrams above, there can be a third, a fifth or a seventh in the bass. 

Here is a chart that contains four drop 2 diminished 7th voicings.

You can see a root chord voicing with three inverted voicings.

The root chord has its root (R) in the bass and the inverted chords have the b3, b5 and b7 in the bass.

This is the principle of the inversion, the chord tones are played in a different order.

Root chord  R b5 bb7 b3
1st inversion (minor third in the bass) b3 bb7 R b5
2nd inversion (diminished fifth in the bass) b5 R b3 bb7
3rd inversion (diminished seventh in the bass) bb7 b3 b5 R

 

Drop 2 Diminished 7 Chord Shapes

That's what drop 2 diminished 7 voicings look like on the whole guitar neck. Each voicing is represented by a different color. 

  • Black shape = Root position
  • Blues shape = First inversion
  • Pink shape = Second inversion
  • Green shape = Third inversion

Drop 3 Diminished 7th Chords

What's a Drop 3 Voicing?

Now that drop 2 dim7 voicings are no longer a secret for you, here are four drop 3 diminished 7th voicings with their eight related shapes to play on guitar. 

You are probably wondering what's the difference between a drop 2 and a drop 3 voicing.

As iexplained above, drop 2 voicings are made by dropping the second highest note of a four-notes closed chord to the bass.

It is the same principle for drop 3 voicings, but this time it is the third highest note that is dropped to the bass giving these 4 chord voicings.
 

Root position (drop 3) R bb7 b3 b5
1st inversion (minor third in the bass) b3 R b5 bb7
2nd inversion (fifth in the bass) b5 b3 bb7 R
3rd inversion (seventh in the bass) bb7 b5 R b3

 

Drop 3 Chord Rules

The lowest notes are always on the 5th of 6 strings (there are no drop 3 chord shapes with bass on the 4th string).

There is a string skip in every shape.

What Scales to Play Over A Diminished 7 Chord?

There are three main scales to play over dim7 chords.

1 - The Whole-Half Diminished Scale

The Whole half diminished scale a an eight note scale that consists of a repeating pattern of whole steps and half steps. It's a symmetrical scale.

C whole half diminished scale C D Eb F Gb Ab A B
Formula 1 9 (2) b3 11 (4) b5 #5 13 (6) 7
Intervals W H W H W H W H

 

2 - The Half-Whole Diminished Scale 

This is a an eight note scale too, that consists of a repeating pattern of halfs steps and whole steps.

It is a symmetrical scale and the opposite of the previous diminished scale.

C half whole diminished scale C Db Eb E F# G A Bb
Formula 1 b9 #9 3 #11 or b5 5 13 (6) b7
Intervals H W H W H W H W

 

3 - Super Locrian bb7 Scale

The super Locrian bb7 scale is the seventh mode of the harmonic minor scale.

B super locrian bb7 mode B C D Eb F G Ab
Formula 1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 bb7
Intervals W W H W W H W+H

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Last edited: 2026-04-29

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