Home > Chords / Progressions > Diminished Chords Diminished Guitar Chords in Theory & Practice This lesson will explain the theory behind diminished guitar chords and their function.
There's a lot of confusion around how diminished chords work in music. I often get asked the question of when to use them in a chord progression.
As with music in general, there are no hard and fast rules (except if it sounds good, play it!), but I'll take you through some of the tried and tested functions diminished chords can serve in your music.
Diminished Guitar Chords: Triads, Half Diminished And Dim 7th
Even if you were just looking for a chord chart (which is further down the page), read through the whole lesson, split overa few days, as it will prove very rewarding as far as developing your improvisation and songwriting skills.
Diminished chord theory - how to construct them Diminished chords (diminished referring to thediminished 5th in the chord) have an unstable sound. They create an air of tension and unresolve (hear the examples below) which is what makes them wonderfully intriguing chords to use in your music.
Note that if you see the ° symbol after the chord letter (e.g.C°), it means diminished. When typing, some people just use o as the proper symbol requires digging out the character map!
Basics Of Diminished Chords On The Guitar
As you can see, there's a common occurence of theroot (1), b3 (flat/minor 3rd) and b5 (flat 5th) in the three types. These are the most important tones in any diminished chord or scale. The flat 5th in relation to a minor 3rd is what gives it that unstable quality.
A half diminished chord is the above diminished triad with an added flat 7th. This chord is also sometimes written as m7b5 (minor 7 flat 5) e.g. Cm7b5.
A diminished seventh chord is a diminished triad with an added diminished 7th. That's another way of saying double flat 7th. So the only difference between a dim7 and m7b5 chord is the 7th is flattened another semitone in dim7 chords.
Diminished Chords: What They Are And 2 Ways To Use Them
First, just make clear in your mind these distinctions as each one has a different sound and function which we'll look at shortly.
To help you play along throughout this lesson, here are the most common diminished guitar chord forms used in chord progressions with their fingerings.
Note that I haven't included diminished triads, because these are most commonly extended to half diminished or diminished 7th. You can see how the triad exists in both these types.
Diminished Guitar Chords
As mentioned earlier, occurences of the diminished triad are often extended to half diminished or diminished 7th chords, because they sound more... interesting. Essentially, you're playing the diminished triad in both those variations anyway, so they're just a meatier, more colourful version of the triad.
So, whenever there is an occurence of a diminished chord then you should try both m7b5 (half diminished) or dim7 and go with the one that sounds best to you.
Leading tone (vii ) diminished chord In major keys, a half diminished chord naturally occurs on the 7th degree (called the leading tone or vii). In plain English that means whatever the major tonic (I) chord is, the diminished chord naturally sits one semitone/fret down from that.
Diminished Chord Tricks On Guitar
It's called a leading tone or leading chord because it naturally resolves or leads to the tonic. You can hear an example here. See the table below for a breakdown...
That's just a few examples. You should be able to see this same leading tone chord - tonic relationship no matter what key you're in.
In minor keys, and especially minor keys based around harmonic minor, a diminished 7th chord is the natural leading tone chord (click to hear example).
Fdim Guitar Chord Tutorial Stock Photo. Image Of Finger
Half diminished iii chord In major key progressions, the iii chord (naturally minor) is sometimes replaced with a half diminished iii. You'll hear this most commonly used in jazz. For example...
You can hear how the tension in that half diminished iii chord is transferred to the augmented 7th chord before the natural ii V I resolution.
Half diminished ii chord Half diminished chords are also often used as the ii chord of major and minor key progressions before the V chord. Take a listen...
Jazz Guitar Chords
Parallel diminished 7th chord A diminished 7th chord can resolve to a chord with the same root (known as a parallelchord change). For example, if the tonic was E major...
Plugging whole step interval gaps Essentially, you can fill any whole step interval between two chords in a scale with a diminished 7th chord.
We can literally plug those whole step (W) gaps between the 1 and 2 chords, 2 and 3 chords, 4 and 5 chords, and 5 and 6 chords with a dim7. We can now visualize the scale as follows...
A Diminished Chord On The Guitar (a Dim)
The symmetry of diminished seventh chords If you look at the intervals of a diminished seventh chord, you'll notice that each one is separated by a minor 3rd. In other words, there is equal spacing between each note of a dim7 chord.
2) Keep that same chord form and move it up 3 frets (that's the equivalent of a minor 3rd interval). So Cdim7 would move to Ebdim7.
3) From that new position, move another 3 frets, again keeping the same dim7 form. From Ebdim7 we'd end up at F#dim7.
Diminished 7th Chords
Tip: Don't just move in minor 3rds using one root string. Try moving in minor 3rds from the E to A string and A to D strings, using the chord shapes you learned earlier.
Because of the symmetry of the dim7 intervals, moving in minor 3rds like this produces exactly the same chord, but each new position is a different inversion of that original dim7 chord.
Practically, that means whenever we choose to play a dim7 chord, using any of the functions covered in this lesson, we can also play any of its related positions based on its minor 3rd intervals.
Augmented And Diminished Chords (and What They're Good For)
All I'm doing there is moving in minor 3rd intervals (up or down the fretboard) whenever I use a diminished seventh chord. It was just an example, so don't overuse it!
I hope this lesson has given you some fresh ideas for your songwriting. Keep experimenting with using diminished guitar chords in different ways.
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