On the bass, the D7#5 chord is the 7th sharp 5th chord built from D, F#, A#, C. On bass it is outlined with the arpeggio D, A#, D, F# — root, 5th, root, 3rd. Keep this page open while you practise: it lists the notes, every practical voicing, the mistakes that make it sound wrong and the progressions where it does its best work.
What notes are in the D7#5 chord?
The D7#5 chord is a 7th sharp 5th chord, and its notes are fixed: D, F#, A#, C. Every voicing on every instrument uses these same notes, in some order and in some octave — change one of them and you are playing a different chord. The table below lists each note with its interval from the root D, so you can see the structure of D7#5 at a glance. On the bass, play D, A#, D, F# and hear how the arpeggio spells out D7#5 without ever playing it as a block.
| Note | Interval |
|---|---|
| D | Root |
| F# | 3 |
| A# | #5 |
| C | b7 |
The root is D, the note the chord is named after and the note your ear hears as home. Above it, the intervals in D7#5 are 3, #5, b7. Learn those intervals rather than memorising the shape alone, because the same interval pattern transposed to another root gives you the same quality of chord anywhere. On the bass, the notes appear in the order the fingering dictates, but the set of notes never changes.
D7#5 sounds tense, bright and exotic — the sharpened 5th ({sharp5}) makes the dominant chord sound like it is leaning forward. Listen for that character when you play it — if D7#5 does not sound that way, one of the notes is probably wrong, and the table above is the place to check. On the bass, the arpeggio D, A#, D, F# outlines D7#5 one note at a time.
Comparing D7#5 with its closest relatives helps to fix it in your ear. In short, 7#5 against dominant 7th: D7#5 raises the 5th to A# where the plain dominant 7th keeps the perfect 5th A. The raised 5th adds lift and tension at the same time. Hearing the comparison matters more than reading it: play D7#5, then play the chord it is compared with above, and let your ear find the note that changed. On the bass, the arpeggio D, A#, D, F# outlines D7#5 one note at a time.
How to play D7#5 on bass
On the bass, D7#5 is not played as a full chord shape the way it is on guitar or piano. Instead you outline it with an arpeggio: the notes D, A#, D, F#, which are the chord tones of D7#5 in the order root, 5th, root, 3rd. That pattern is the working shape for this chord on bass, and it tells the listener exactly which chord is sounding, even though you never play all the notes at once.
Practise the arpeggio of D7#5 by playing D on beat one, A# on beat two, D on beat three and F# on beat four, one note per beat, letting each note ring for its full value. Then play it backwards — F#, D, A#, D — so your fingers learn the shape in both directions. The root D is the anchor: it is the note the rest of the band listens for, so land on it cleanly and on time, and let the 5th A# and the 3rd F# colour the bar without pulling attention away from the root.
Once the straight arpeggio of D7#5 is comfortable, try playing just the root D and the 5th A# for a whole bar, then add the 3rd F# on the last beat as a passing colour. That root-and-5th skeleton is how most bass lines outline D7#5 in a real song, and the full arpeggio is the version you use when the arrangement has space for it. Check the notes with the Bass Chord Finder and the Chord Finder, and practise the arpeggio against a slow metronome so the notes land exactly on the beat.
Common mistakes
These are the mistakes that most often make D7#5 sound wrong on the bass, and each one has a concrete fix. Work through them one at a time rather than trying to fix everything at once.
Playing the arpeggio as a chord. Strumming all the notes of D7#5 at once on bass sounds muddy and hides the root. Play the arpeggio one note at a time, let each note ring, and keep the root D as the note the listener hears first. On the bass, D7#5 is the arpeggio D, A#, D, F# — root, 5th, root, 3rd — and that order is the shape to learn.
Playing a perfect 5th. If the 5th is A the chord is a plain dominant 7th. The sharpened 5th A# is the note that makes it altered. On the bass, play D, A#, D, F# and hear how the arpeggio spells out D7#5 without ever playing it as a block.
Confusing it with the augmented triad. The augmented triad has no 7th. D7#5 adds the flattened 7th C to the augmented triad — that 7th is essential. On the bass, the arpeggio D, A#, D, F# outlines D7#5 one note at a time.
Using it as a tonic. D7#5 is an altered dominant. It wants to resolve to the tonic a fourth above its root. On the bass, play D, A#, D, F# and hear how the arpeggio spells out D7#5 without ever playing it as a block.
Where D7#5 is used
D7#5 is not a diatonic triad in any major or minor key, because it is an extended or altered chord, but its base triad belongs to the key of D major, the key of G major, the key of A major. an altered dominant in jazz, where the sharpened 5th adds tension before a resolution. As a dominant-type chord it also points toward G major, the key a perfect fourth above D, which is the tonic it most often resolves to. That is where D7#5 does its work: not as a home chord, but as a chord that creates movement and then resolves. On the bass, the arpeggio D, A#, D, F# outlines D7#5 one note at a time.
Because D7#5 is an extended or altered chord, it appears in progressions as a colour or a dominant rather than as a diatonic staple. Try it in place of the plain D triad in a progression you already know, and listen to how the extra notes change the feel — that substitution is the usual way extended chords enter real music. The Chord Progression Builder lets you try D7#5 in a progression in any key and hear how it connects to the chords around it. On the bass, the arpeggio D, A#, D, F# outlines D7#5 one note at a time.
The same chord on other instruments is covered in D7#5 on guitar, D7#5 on piano, D7#5 on ukulele, and the scales that fit over it are the D major scale and the D minor pentatonic scale. Learning D7#5 on the bass and then checking it on another instrument is one of the best ways to fix the notes — D, F#, A#, C — in your memory, because the notes stay the same while everything else changes.
Practising D7#5
A short worked example makes D7#5 concrete. Play the four-chord progression G – D – Em – C in G major, the key D7#5 most often resolves toward: G – D – Em – C. Play each chord for one bar at a slow tempo, and listen to how D7#5 sounds in that sequence — whether it feels like home, like a lift, or like a chord on its way somewhere else. Then play the same four chords in a different order, starting on D7#5 itself, and notice how its character changes when it opens the progression instead of sitting inside it. On the bass, the arpeggio D, A#, D, F# outlines D7#5 one note at a time.
For a second exercise, play D7#5 and then the chord a fourth above D, back and forth, four times each. That move — a chord and the chord a fourth above it — is the most common resolution in Western music, and it is the move D7#5 is built for when it acts as a dominant. Finish by playing D7#5 on its own, slowly, and naming each note out loud as you play it: D, F#, A#, C. Naming the notes while you play them is what turns a shape into knowledge you can use in any key. Test yourself with the Practice Chord Quiz and keep time with the Metronome as the tempo rises. On the bass, the arpeggio D, A#, D, F# outlines D7#5 one note at a time.
Frequently asked questions
How do you play D7#5 on the bass?
Outline it with the arpeggio D, A#, D, F#: root, 5th, root, 3rd. Play one note per beat, with the root D on beat one, and let each note ring. That arpeggio tells the listener exactly which chord is sounding, even though you never play all the notes of D7#5 at once.
What notes are in the D7#5 bass arpeggio?
The arpeggio is D, A#, D, F#. It starts on the root D, moves to the 5th A#, returns to the root D and finishes on the 3rd F#. Those four notes are the chord tones of D7#5, and playing them in that order is the standard way to outline the chord on bass.
Should you play the full D7#5 chord on bass?
Usually not. On bass the chord is outlined with the arpeggio D, A#, D, F#, not strummed as a block. Playing all the notes at once sounds muddy in the low register and hides the root, which is the note the rest of the band is listening for.
What notes are in D7#5?
D7#5 contains D, F#, A#, C: root D, major 3rd F#, sharpened 5th A# and flattened 7th C. The sharpened 5th is the note that makes it an altered dominant. On the bass, the arpeggio above shows where that note sits.
What is the difference between D7#5 and D7?
D7 has the perfect 5th A; D7#5 raises it to A#. D7#5 sounds tenser and more exotic, and it is used as an altered dominant in jazz. On the bass, the arpeggio above shows where that note sits.