How to Play the Dm7 Chord on Guitar

The Dm7 Guitar Chord – Advanced Voicings

The following post will demonstrate and explain how to play the Dm7 Chord on Guitar (also known as D Minor 7, Dmin7). Follow this link for an easy beginner version of the D Minor 7 Chord.

The Dm7 is a beautiful sounding chord and often used in jazz guitar. You are welcome to scroll right down to the chord charts below or stick around for a little theory on how this chord is formed.

We must first look at the D Major Scale: D, E, F#, G, A, B, and C#. All the notes needed to play our Dm7 chord can be found in this scale. All we need to do is apply the following handy formula to this scale to find our notes. That formula is: 1, b3, 5 and b7. This gives us the notes: D, F, A and C. The “b3” symbol means that we take the 3rd step of the D Major Scale and flatten it by 1/2 step. When we do this, our “F#” note becomes an “F”. The “b7” symbol is essentially the same only we are doing it to the 7th note in the scale, so our “C#” becomes a “C”.

D Minor 7 Chord notes: D, F, A and C

I have included 4 different versions of this chord below. This is definitely not an easy chord to finger if you are a beginner. It involves advanced techniques like Barre Chords and string muting. Good Luck!

Here is a key that will help you read the charts:

Everything on the above chart should be self explanatory, except for the last three in the third column. They may need a bit of explaining. The O, or open symbol, simply means that you do not press down on any notes on that string. The X means you do not strum that particular string. The Barre symbol means you need to barre that particular fret. When you barre a fret you are pressing down on multiple strings at the same time with one finger.