# Help with a guitar chord **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 2, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812 "2020-03-02T19:20:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/1 "2020-03-02T19:20:03Z")
What chord is the guy on the right playing at 0:15? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/4IReAygiSw8/hqdefault.jpg "The Malpass Bros. - "Memory That Bad"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IReAygiSw8) Auto transcripts online call it out as C#dim but it doesn’t look (or sound like it to me). Regardless, I can’t make it sound like he makes it sound. I’m pretty sure it’s standard tuning because my D, A and E sound like his. Help appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/2 "2020-03-02T19:48:05Z")
To me it’s F#dim7 5 4 5 4 x x ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/3 "2020-03-02T19:59:45Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > To me it’s F#dim7 > > 5 > 4 > 5 > 4 > x > x I don’t see any fingering above the 4th? ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/4 "2020-03-02T20:03:08Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I don’t see any fingering above the 4th? I’m looking at 0:15 just as he sings “after all it’s been a while” ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/5 "2020-03-02T20:09:50Z")
I’m not up on my guitar fingerings, but that’s a F#dim7 chord by sound. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/6 "2020-03-02T21:40:14Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > I’m not up on my guitar fingerings, but that’s a F#dim7 chord by sound. If you can tell that just by listening that’s very impressive. I’ll be back home soon and try out the suggestion. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/7 "2020-03-02T22:25:37Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > If you can tell that just by listening that’s very impressive… It was my Hollywood occupation once upon a time. Ah, that \*fabulous \*F#dim7 chord! Brings back memories, she does! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/8 "2020-03-02T22:33:30Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > If you can tell that just by listening that’s very impressive. **Musicat** used to do transcriptions/takedowns for a living, so he should be pretty good at this. 🙂 (ETA: Well, ninja’d on that point.) That said, once you get used to the sound of a diminished chord, you should be able to pick it out by ear. It does have a very distinctive sound. I don’t have perfect pitch or anything approximating it, so I couldn’t tell you that it’s specifically F#dim7 without the context of assuming his guitar is in concert pitch and knowing the key by looking at the chords he’s fingering, but I’d be able to tell you it’s a diminished seventh chord. It sounds like those first four chords are D - Dmaj7 - F#dim - G. (Though I am a little confused about that second chord. I guess it must be fingered x-x-4-2-2-2, so I guess it’s a Dmaj7/F#, unless I’m just hearing it wrong.) ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/9 "2020-03-02T23:18:13Z")
Some trivia. Enharmonically speaking, there are only 3 possible diminished 7th chords. Notating a dim 7th chord as an inversion rarely makes sense, as there is always a simpler name for it. Example: Call it a Cdim7/Eb, or a Ebdim7 – it’s the same 4 tones either way. A guitarist needs to learn only 3 dim7 fingerings in order to cover all possibilities. Similarly, there are only 4 possible augmented triad chords. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/10 "2020-03-02T23:24:40Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > (Though I am a little confused about that second chord. I guess it must be fingered x-x-4-2-2-2, so I guess it’s a Dmaj7/F#, unless I’m just hearing it wrong.) I’m thinking F#m. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/11 "2020-03-02T23:33:41Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > I’m thinking F#m. Oh, duh. :smack: Yeah, that would be F#m. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/12 "2020-03-02T23:40:04Z")
ETA: My ears want to hear it as a major 7th chord (and it can be interpreted that way if the D stays in there somewhere), but F#m is more straightforward and correct, and we do have an F# in the bass. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/13 "2020-03-03T01:06:48Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > I’m looking at 0:15 just as he sings “after all it’s been a while” Okay; I was going by the OP and looking at 0:12. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/14 "2020-03-03T01:25:36Z")
I just want to say that every time someone plays a guitar on YouTube, they should be required to have the guitarist facing the camera so that we can clearly see the fingering of every chord. OR, Mister Jimi, if you must leap around, then we need a tablature running down the side of the frame. If you wouldn’t mind shouting out the chords as you’re playing, that’d help, too. “You know you are a… _F#minor7th_…cute little…_Bmajor._… heartbreaker… _F#minor7th_…Ooh, _Bmajor_…foxy!” ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/15 "2020-03-03T02:05:23Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Okay; I was going by the OP and looking at 0:12. ??? The OP says 0:15. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/16 "2020-03-03T02:07:37Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I just want to say that every time someone plays a guitar on YouTube, they should be required to have the guitarist facing the camera so that we can clearly see the fingering of every chord. > > OR, Mister Jimi, if you must leap around, then we need a tablature running down the side of the frame. If you wouldn’t mind shouting out the chords as you’re playing, that’d help, too. Ha ha, thanks, I got a kick out of that. I concur and it’s so true. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/17 "2020-03-03T15:11:11Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > ??? The OP says 0:15. :smack: I looked at that at least four times and saw it as 0:12! What a goober! ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/18 "2020-03-03T18:52:48Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Some trivia. Enharmonically speaking, there are only 3 possible diminished 7th chords. > > Notating a dim 7th chord as an inversion rarely makes sense, as there is always a simpler name for it. Example: Call it a Cdim7/Eb, or a Ebdim7 – it’s the same 4 tones either way. A guitarist needs to learn only 3 dim7 fingerings in order to cover all possibilities. > > Similarly, there are only 4 possible augmented triad chords. Thanks for that. As a not-very-great guitarist I appreciate insights like this. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-a-guitar-chord/848812/19 "2020-03-03T20:24:36Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Thanks for that. As a not-very-great guitarist I appreciate insights like this. Another tip, the reason for that is that every note in a diminished 7 chord is 3 half-steps, or a minor 3rd, above the last. This means that any note in the chord can be considered the root, depending on the key or the other chords in the progression. I also means that you can slide the _same fingering_ up or down 3 frets to the _same chord_. It’s an easy way to add a sense of movement.