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Easy Beginner Guitar Lessons – My first steps to learning diminished chords on the guitar
By Mike Hayes | August 28, 2009
It’s easy to tell when there’s a diminished chord in a piece of
music … that’s when the guitar player usually stops playing and
starts scratching their head.
Yes, diminished chords have been known to give guitar players
blisters on the brain; but it doesn’t have to be that way! Some
of the confusion comes from the various types of diminished
chords.
There’s the three note diminished triad; the four note diminished
7th version and then there is their musical cousin the half
diminished chord, also known as the minor seventh flat five
chord.. but that’s another story.
Today I’m going to concentrate on the diminished seventh chord as
it’s the most common type of diminished chord in popular music.
Generally speaking when we see a diminished chord they’re
referring to a diminished seventh.
Diminished chords structure:
(a) the three note diminished triad formula is 1-b3-b5
(b) the four note diminished seventh chord formula is 1-b3-b5-bb7
Important: the symbol “bb” is a double flat; which simply means
you flatten the note twice i.e., move the note back down the
fretboard two frets (away from you).
The chord symbols used for writing diminished chords are: Co, C dim or Cdim7
Diminished seventh chords:
Creating diminished seventh chords and designing your own chord
shapes is a breeze once you know how to spell them!
Here’s how it works: Use the first, flat third, flat fifth and
double flattened seventh notes from the major scale to find the
correct notes to create the diminished seventh chord.
Let’s begin by creating a Cdim chord …
step 1. Use the major scale as a starting point
step 2. Apply of chord construction formula 1-b3-b5-bb7
step 3. Locate the appropriate notes on the guitar
In the key of C:
C major scale = C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C
Remove the 1-b3-b5-bb7 notes of the scale = C-Eb-Gb-Bbb and
that’s how we would spell C diminished seventh.
Cdim7 = C-Eb-Gb-Bbb
When you try this on the guitar you will notice that a Bbb is the
same pitch as the note “A”.
Using this same approach, here’s how we would create other
diminished seventh chords.
starting with …
Ebdim7
step 1. Eb major scale Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb-C-D-Eb
step 2. extract 1-b3-b5-bb7
answer: Ebdim7 = Eb-Gb-A-C
here’s how we would spell …
Ddim7
step 1. D major scale D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D
step 2. extract 1-b3-b5-bb7
answer: Ddim7 = D-F-Ab-B
Musical applications:
Primarily used as a connecting chord to create added tension and
dynamics.
In the following example I’m using the diminished seventh chord
as a type of musical ‘filler’ to create a sense of upward
movement in the chord sequence.
Example 1.
A /// | Bm /// | C#m /// | D /// | becomes …
A /A#dim/ | Bm/Cdim/ | C#m /// | D /// | etc
Notice how I used the diminished chords? I added a diminished
chord that was a semitone higher in pitch than the original
chord.
They’re also great for introductions:
Example 2
C /// | G /// || could be played like this …
C / C#dim / | Dm7 / G7/ ||
Unique chord quality: Any note in the chord can function as the
key note e.g., Cdim7 is spelt C-Eb-Gb-A, therefore this same
chord could also be named Ebdim7, Gbdim7 or Adim7.
When you think about the enharmonic options for Eb = D# and
Gb = F# we would have a total of six names for the one chord
shape.
Summary:
Cdim7 could also be named …
Ebdim7, D#dim7, Gbdim7, F#dim7, Adim7; with very little physical
effort.
Fretboard application: Each diminished seventh chord repeats every three frets; meaning you could play any diminished seventh chord, move the exact same shape three frets higher or lower on the fretboard and still be playing the same chord, only a different inversion of the chord.
Have fun playing the new diminished seventh chords on your guitar.
And now I’d like to invite you to get free access to my “How To
Remember 1,000 Songs” eCourse. You can download the course for
free at: http://www.guitarcoaching.com
From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar
System
http://www.GuitarCoaching.com
http://AdvancingGuitaristProgram.com
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