D♯m7

D♯1F♯♭3A♯5C♯♭7

Minor triad with a minor seventh. The same four notes as a major sixth chord a third above.

Written the other way round it is E♭m7 — the same twelve keys on a piano, a different piece of notation.

on guitar on piano the scale

Every fingering that fits a hand

Fig. 2

x324

easy · no 5

Fig. 3

8a99

hard

Fig. 4

8696

hard · no 5

Fig. 5

8699

hard · no 5

Fig. 6

869x

easy · no 5

What is true of it

D♯m7 is D♯, F♯, A♯ and C♯ — 1, b3, 5 and b7 counted from D♯.

These are also the notes of F♯6/D♯ and G♭6/D♯. Which name is right depends on what is underneath and what came before — the notes alone do not decide.

On an instrument that cannot reach all 4, the 5 goes first, in that order.

The easiest of the 5 fingerings below is x324: 3 fingers, held at the 2nd fret.

None of them uses an open string, so this chord moves up the neck unchanged — the same shape 1 fret higher is the chord a semitone above.

It leaves out the 5. 4 strings cannot carry 4 notes, and the 5 is the one this chord can lose without changing what it is.

1 string stays silent.

Where its notes are on the neck

Fig. 7 — first 12 frets

The brass dots are D♯, the root. Everything else is a chord tone with its degree printed in it.

With a different note underneath

first inversion

D♯m7/F♯

x696

second inversion

D♯m7/A♯

3324

third inversion

D♯m7/C♯

6666

An inversion is the same chord with a different note lowest. The name changes to a slash name because the bass is what a listener hears as the foundation.

D♯ in other shapes

D♯7dominant seventh D♯maj7major seventh D♯m(maj7)minor major seventh D♯major D♯mminor D♯dimdiminished

Cm7 C♯m7 D♭m7 Dm7 Em7 Fm7 F♯m7 G♭m7 all 374