The workbench
What the chord is doing
Most chord tools hand you a grip and leave. This one shows what the shape is made of, what it becomes when the next chord arrives, and which single note is doing the work. Change the key or the tuning and every shape on the page is found again, because none of them were stored in the first place.
Nothing here is for sale and nothing links out. Arrow keys move through the progression and space plays the chord, once the sound is on.
The most-played three chords in the repertoire. Watch the third and seventh of each chord: one holds and one falls a semitone, then they swap jobs. Everything else is decoration.
Dm7
minor seventh · R b3 5 b7
- the root
- third, or what replaced it
- fifth, altered or not
- seventh
- everything above the seventh
x-5-0-5-6-5 · low string first
- Sounding
- R b7 b3 5
- Notes
- D D C F A
- Hand
- 2 fingers at fret 5
What to notice
The approach. Its seventh is the note that will fall; its third is the note that will stay.
Other shapes for this chord
Found by searching the neck, ranked by how little the hand moves from the chord before it.
Change the chord
Dm7 to G7
About as smooth as this gets: 3 semitones across 5 voices, 3 held, 1 moving by a half step, 1 voice added.
- D → DR becomes 5holds
- D → DR becomes 5holds
- C → Bb7 becomes 3down 1
- F → Fb3 becomes b7holds
- A → G5 becomes Rdown 2
The guide tones, which are the notes that decide what each chord is: the b7 moves 1 to become the 3, the b3 stays put and becomes the b7.
3 strings stay put, 2 refret, the largest by 2 frets, 1 string come in or drop out. 6 strings on the neck.
Change key
Pick two keys and a route. Everything below, including the reasoning, is worked out for this pair.
Arriving: F#. Leaving: F.
- Imaj7 IVmaj7Cmaj7x-3-2-0-0-0Home, in C major.
- vi7 ii7Am7x-0-2-0-1-0The pivot. Am7 is the vi7 of C major and the ii7 of G major, so nothing has changed yet and everything is about to.
- – V7D710-0-10-11-x-xThe commitment. D7 belongs to G major and not to C major, which is the moment the ear changes its mind.
- – Imaj7Gmaj73-2-0-0-0-2Home, in G major.
C major and G major share 6 of seven notes. Am7 is heard as the vi7 on the way in and as the ii7 on the way out, which is what a pivot is: one chord with two names, reinterpreted underneath the listener. The change is only confirmed by the D7 after it. 2 other shared chords would also work: Cmaj7 (Imaj7 / IVmaj7), Em7 (iii7 / vi7).
The numerals under each chord read what the old key calls it then what the new key calls it. A dash means that key has no name for it, which is exactly what makes a chord foreign.