Guitar Chords: Diminished Chords

Guitar Theory: Diminished Triads Fretboard Charts

dim chords

Guitar Theory: Diminished Chords

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.

One reason for this is that the diminished tends to be a 7th 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

The diminished chord formulas are:

• 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