F# Diminished 7th (F#dim7)
Also written as Gb Diminished 7th (Gb and F# are the same key).
Notes in F# Diminished 7th
Inversions
Same notes as F# Diminished 7th, with a different chord tone as the lowest note. Useful for smoother movement between chords instead of jumping around the keyboard.
Root position
F# in the bass
1st inversion
A in the bass
2nd inversion
C in the bass
3rd inversion
Eb in the bass
Open voicings
A close-position chord like F# Diminished 7th can sound cluttered in the middle of the keyboard. Jazz players open it up by dropping one note down an octave, spreading the same notes wider without changing the chord.
Drop 2
C on the bottom
Drop 3
A on the bottom
Play F#, A, C and Eb together and you get F# Diminished 7th.
Stack three minor thirds in a row and the seventh shrinks all the way to a double-flatted seventh, which lands on the same key as a plain sixth. The chord is perfectly symmetrical, so the same four keys can be renamed and reused as a diminished seventh built on any of its four notes. It's the classic villain-sting and passing chord of common-practice harmony.