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 7th Chords
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!
Access Half Diminished Guitar Chord Symbol
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.
Shape Of The C#dim/b Chord: Chord Farm
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.
How Do People Play A Diminished Chord On A Guitar?
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.
Adim Chord On Guitar: Charts And Variations
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).
Chords For Left Hand Guitar Laminated Chart
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...
How To Play E Diminished Voicings
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...
Chord Flow, The Skeleton Of A Key
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.
How To Play Guitar Chords In The Key Of G — Worship Guitar Academy
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.
Chord Voicings On Guitar
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.The A minor chord is one of the most common and popular chords on the guitar. The open Am chord is one of the first chords that most guitarists learn, and it has been used in countless songs across many genres.
The open A minor chord and the open E minor chord are easily the two most common minor chords on the guitar.
How To Play Adim
The standard way to play the A minor chord is in the open position. This is actually one of the most commonly used guitar chords of all, and one of the first that most guitarists learn.
The easy version of the A minor chord is very similar to the standard open A minor chord (above), but with the fourth string omitted. This means that only the first three strings are used and only two fingers are needed. Most people go ahead and learn the standard A minor chord shape to begin with, but this slightly easier version can be useful if you’re looking for an easier version.
The instructions above are step by step instructions for playing the common A minor chord shape. Forming the chord through step by step instructions is a great way of ensuring that you are interpreting the chord diagram correctly.
Why There Are Actually Only Three Types Of Chords
The Am chord can be played as a barre chord by playing a root 6 barre chord shape and starting on the 5
Playing triads is a great way of exploring the minor chord and the guitar fretboard more generally. By arranging the notes of the chord systematically using permutations (root position, first inversion, second inversion), interesting and unique shapes and voicings are created. The three different voicings for the A minor triad are:
The following shapes are alternative ways of playing the A minor chord shape. They’re not the most common Am shapes, but used enough to include here as interesting alternatives.
Chords In The Key Of G Major
Most A minor chords with extensions can be used as a substitute for the A minor chord. For example, Am9, Am11 and Am6 can often be used to add colour and emotion to the A minor chord.
For more interesting substitutions, playing variations of the C chord (which is the relative Major of A minor), such as C6, C69, Cmaj9 etc. can be used effectively as a substitute for the A minor chord.
The most common and effective scales that can be used to solo/improvise over the A minor chord, or to create melodies for the purposes of song writing are:
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