Learn Diminished Guitar Chords
Diminished guitar chords are one of those oddities than can a new dimension to your guitar playing with very little effort.
The strange feel they add to a song can make your playing sound weird and almost trippy, a la the Beatles in during their psychedelic phase in 1968.
Diminished chords are ‘odd’ in every sense of the word. For starters there are only 3 of them. Have a look at the diagram below. This is C dim (i.e. C diminished). It is also D# dim, A dim and F# dim.
Diminished guitar chords can take their name from any of the notes in the chord. As there are only four notes in the chord, it has four different names.
Another thing to note is that there are no open strings in the chord. This allows you to use the diminished chord shape in the same way as a barre chord.
If you slide the whole chord shape up one fret it looks like this and will be called E dim, Bb dim, C# dim or G dim.
If you slide the shape up one more fret it will be F dim, B dim, D dim, Ab dim.
And finally, sliding it up one more fret it will be Eb dim, A dim, C dim, F# dim.
Have a look at the names for this last chord. They are exactly the same names as the very first diminished chord you looked at. The names of diminished chords repeat themselves every three frets – so there are only three diminished chords.
What Do You Use Diminished Guitar Chords For?
Diminished chords are what I would call a stopover chord. They are ‘extra’ chords added into a song to give it a different sound. They are never absolutely necessary and a lot of internet guitar tabs will leave them out. Adding them in though can give a whole sound to a song.
Normally diminished guitar chords are used as a transition between two ‘more important’ chords – the Beatles used them a lot – they are what gave songs like Strawberry fields and Michelle those weird, almost haunting changeovers even though most of the time internet guitar tabs just ignore them.
hey is this chord moveable all over the neck on the 4th string only?
@ Joe The diminished chord is movable right up the neck. I have only shown the 4 string version here.A diminished chord can be named after any note in the chord. Look closely at the notes of the chord and you will see that the notes when you play the chord on the 4th fret are the same as when you play the chord on the 1st fret (i.e. they are the same chord) so all you need are the 3 chord shapes shown on this post to be able to play all the diminished chords. Hope this answers your question. If it doesn’t let me know…
I’m confused by diminished chords. Theory books say that the 7th triad chord of a major scale is diminished, and yet a diminished chord contains 4 notes. I read that there are only 3 diminished chords, but you can build a diminished chord on any note – by thinking of a minor chord and flattening the 5th – and there seems to be more than three to me. In a forthcoming exam, I’ve got to identify the notes of any diminished TRIAD but some say there’s no such thing as a diminished triad, only a min chord with a flattened 5th. I keep trying to clarify it but just get more and more confused. Can you help?
it s clear if u put all the notes og cromatic scale around a circle as like as a clock,and then try to connet eache three note that can be in diminish triad chors together after four note u can see that triangle shapes repeat it happens onfour oclock ,it means for example u have only C.C#,D,D# triad diminished chord and after all over u think are diiferent chords ,reaaly are different inversion of these chords.draw circle and do this it help to underestand abviously what i mean.
Tony, when people say “diminished,” it’s the vernacular for a diminished 7th chord. Yea that’s confusing if you think it could apply to triads too, but because diminished 7ths are more common than diminished triads, they get the main designation of “diminished.” So usually when one is referring to a diminished triad, they will call it a “diminished triad”(i.e. include the ‘triad’ part.) Since diminished 7ths all use 4 notes that are evenly spaced 3 semitones apart from each other,(4×3=12) they are all the same chord but inverted to where different notes are in the root etc. So at 1st fret you have a diminished chord, and at 4th fret you have the same chord inverted. Frets 2 and 3 have the other two diminished chords, which like wise repeat at 5th and 6th frets, respectively. So you can play the same shape on all 12 frets, but they will all be the same 3 chords, played in 4 different inversions of themselves, in the same pattern I described. On the second issue of your theory book saying that the 7th triad chord of a major scale is diminished, what it is referring to is the 7th mode, or locrian mode. Look at the major scale as 14 notes instead of 7, the second 7 repeating the first 7. Then, start the scale on the 7th note and play through to the 13th note. Those 7 tones are the locrian mode, i.e. starting the major scale from it’s 7th note instead of it’s 1st. Since the intervals between notes are what gives a scale it’s sound, it sounds different. Now you can take that scale pattern you just learned and compare it to the major scale from note 1, ionian mode. You will see that if you rename the notes you’re playing in comparison to the ionian mode, your locrian will be a version of the ionian that has a flattened 2nd, flattened 3rd, flattened 5th, flattened 6th, and flattened 7th before hitting the octave again. Because the names of chords are based off of their relation to the ionian mode, this comparison is necessary to find the right chords to play alongside modes and scales. In this regard, the triad chord that sounds most “correct” to play before, during or after the locrian mode is a diminished triad, that is, a triad in the same key as the 1st note of your locrian mode, that has a minor 3rd and flattened 5th. So in C, locrian starts on a B. This would be called B locrian. With B locrian, you can play a B diminished triad, a triad with a “flat 3 and flat 5″(in comparison to the ionian), the same chordtones as the B locrian scale. Another good chord to play with the B locrian would be a B minor7th flat 5, or half-diminished chord. I hope this helps clear some of your confusion.
How do i know which dim chord works with which key?
@Joshua Glass
It depends on what key you’re in; in a major key, the diminished chord that works would be the 7th root in that key. For minor scales it would be the 2nd.
For example, let’s use C major: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C; your diminished chord would be Bdim, because a B major chord is B, D#, F#, and the 3rd and 5th of the chord aren’t in the C scale, so you need to flat the 3rd and 5th in order to make B, D, F; or Bdim.
Hi Learning Guitar folks,
This is by far the best explaination of the dimished chords I have ever seen!!! Thank You so much, it totally removed all confusion I had about what this weired chord is, and where to find it on the Fretboard. I am wondering, for example for A dim, if three of the notes are the root, the flattend 3rd and the flattened 5th, what degree is the fourth note? Because here you show 4 distinct notes for a diminished chord
Thanks for the diagram. As a keyboard player normally, I often used diminished chords as what I term a “passing chord” but I have been unable to work it out for myself on the guitar. Thanks again.