D♭13

D♭1F3A♭5C♭♭7E♭9B♭13

Seven notes in theory and four or five in anyone’s hands: root, third, seventh and thirteenth carry it.

Written the other way round it is C♯13 — the same twelve keys on a piano, a different piece of notation.

on ukulele on piano the scale

Every fingering that fits a hand

Fig. 2

x43304

hard · no 9

Fig. 3

x41301

hard · no 5

Fig. 4

x4330x

easy · no 5, 9

Fig. 5

x43301

hard · no 5, 9

Fig. 6

x43306

hard · no 5, 9

What is true of it

D♭13 is D♭, F, A♭, C♭, E♭ and B♭ — 1, 3, 5, b7, 9 and 13 counted from D♭.

On an instrument that cannot reach all 6, the 5, 9 and 1 go first, in that order.

The easiest of the 5 fingerings below is x43304: 4 fingers, held at the 3rd fret.

None of them uses an open string, so this chord moves up the neck unchanged — the same shape 1 fret higher is the chord a semitone above.

It leaves out the 9. 6 strings cannot carry 6 notes, and the 9 is the one this chord can lose without changing what it is.

1 string stays silent.

Where its notes are on the neck

Fig. 7 — first 12 frets

The brass dots are D♭, the root. Everything else is a chord tone with its degree printed in it.

With a different note underneath

first inversion

D♭13/F

11110x

second inversion

D♭13/A♭

44330x

third inversion

D♭13/C♭

x21301

An inversion is the same chord with a different note lowest. The name changes to a slash name because the bass is what a listener hears as the foundation.

D♭ in other shapes

D♭add9added ninth D♭9dominant ninth D♭maj9major ninth D♭major D♭mminor D♭dimdiminished

C13 D13 D♯13 E♭13 E13 F13 F♯13 G♭13 all 374