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D flat major chord

The three notes, the three ways to stack them and which fingers to use.

The short answer

The notes of the D flat major chord are D flat, F and A flat.

On the keys

Keyboard with D flat, F and A flat markedFD♭A♭

Yellow is the root, the note the chord is named after.

On the staff

Treble and bass staves showing the D flat major chord in root position: D flat, F and A flat

The D flat major chord in root position. The treble clef is the right hand; the bass clef is the same chord an octave lower for the left.

Inversions

An inversion keeps the same three notes and changes which one is lowest. The D flat major chord has a root position and two inversions, and all three still sound as D flat major.

  1. Root positionD♭ F A♭right hand 1 3 5, left hand 5 3 1
  2. First inversionF A♭ D♭right hand 1 2 5, left hand 5 3 1
  3. Second inversionA♭ D♭ Fright hand 1 3 5, left hand 5 2 1

Keep going

D flat major scale

The scale this chord is built on: D flat, E flat, F, G flat, A flat, B flat and C.

B flat minor chord

The relative minor shares the same key signature as D flat major.

D flat minor chord

D flat minor, written here as C sharp minor: the same keys on the piano, spelled differently. Same root, one note different.

Questions

How do you build a D flat major chord?

Start on D flat, add the major third (four semitones) above it, which is F, then the perfect fifth above the root (seven semitones), which is A flat.

How many inversions does a D flat major chord have?

Two: first inversion puts F at the bottom and second inversion puts A flat at the bottom. With root position that makes three ways to play the same chord.

Practise D flat major and the chords around it in PlayPiano, a piano practice app for iPhone and iPad.

Play it in the app