Diminished Chords

What is a diminished chord

Diminished chords are unstable chords, they are very dissonant. They seem like they lack something, they need something. And usually that something ends up being the major chord a half step up from that diminished chord.

Diminished chords are usually written like "o" or "-" or "dim". And they are usually used as passing chords. You don't stay on them too long. They lead to other chords

One reason for this is that the diminished tends to be a 7 chord, and we'll get into the theory of chord progressions later. But for now just know that, for example, a c# diminished chord would naturally want to lead into a D major chord. Or an Edim would want to go into an F major chord

Now there are really three different kinds of diminished chords that are commonly heard.

diminished triad
diminished 7th (fully)
half diminished 7th

Diminished chord formulas:

diminished triad 1 - b3 (m3) - b or O5

(basically this is playing 3 minor 3rds in a row)

half diminished 7th 1 - b3 (m3) - b or O5 - b7

(also called min7b5)

diminished 7th 1 - b3 (m3) - b or O5 - bb7

(actually a M6 interval)

Diminished Triads	The min7b5 chords (half diminished)	fully diminished 7th chords
A = A - C - Eb B = B - D - F C = C - Eb - Gb D = D - F - Ab E = E - G - Bb F = F - Ab - B G = G - Bb - Db	A = A - C - Eb - G B = B - D - F - A C = C - Eb - Gb - Bb D = D - F - Ab - C E = E - G - Bb - D F = F - Ab - B - Eb G = G - Bb - Db - F	A = A - C - Eb - F# B = B - D - F - G# C = C - Eb - Gb - A D = D - F - Ab - B E = E - G - Bb - C# F = F - Ab - B - D G = G - Bb - Db - E

Diminished Chord Charts