Diminished for dummies

Diminished is a strange old beast; unique and apart from anything else, to my mind. If it's all new to you then grab your guitar and let us demystify it for you!

A diminished chord is a series of minor third intervals: Every note is three frets (minor third interval) away from its neighbour.

Whilst every other chord is a combination of different intervals (often either major or minor third), diminished only has one interval. This makes for a glorious symmetry that you can play around with as an introduction to the 'diminished sound'. Don't think of a box position when exploring this, but rather a pattern. Examine these minor  third intervals across a large section of guitar neck ~ take notice of the emerging patterns:


It is actually easy to play this scale across the entire neck ~ very liberating if one is used to playing boxes! Simply identify the patterns. For instance, when moving up a string from my 6th, 5th or 4th strings, I simply go up one fret at the same time. Simples ;)
When crossing from my 3rd to 2nd strings I simply go down one fret instead of up. Job done.

Note that I don't show any root notes. Because all the intervals are the same, no one note stands out as being 'the root note': Every note has the same weight or emphasis. When naming a diminished chord I tend to refer to the deepest one; the one I am playing on my fattest string - but it would be okay to name it using any note within the chord.

This video will go a long way to demysifying diminished whilst providing you with practical applications for both diminished chords and scale. Grab your guitar and select play:




Below is a track consisting entirely of diminished chords. Although I've tried to make it as groovy as possible, it's not a piece of music you'd want to listen to for pleasure. However, I think it's a nice groove and it is great for rattling up and down the above pattern; exploring diminished licks and runs.



Once you've become fairly familiar with the pattern for the above scale, try jamming over the following track (in E minor), using whatever minor scale(s) you are familiar with, whilst dropping in and out of the diminished. Start your diminished licks and runs on either E or G notes, and enjoy! :)


If you fancy exploring this further then I suggest you begin by identifying the intervals within a dominant 7th chord. Do this with your guitar in hand and locate the following notes / intervals as you read this.

Take a simple A7 chord. The notes of A7 are A, C#, E and G. Let's analyse the intervals (musical distances) between each of the notes:

A to C# = four frets = major third interval
C# to E = three frets = minor third interval
E to G = three frets = minor third interval

Notice that we have two minor third intervals. "Doesn't that make a diminished  chord?!" I hear you say....YES!
If we drop the A note from an A7 chord then what remains is a diminished chord, I.E C#, E & G.

You may not have realised this, but any four note chord established from a harmonised major scale is a chord within another chord. I think of them as being nested chords. For instance a G major seventh chord is a Bm with a G in the bass. If this is new to you then check it out for yourself. Analyse any major 7th, minor 7th or dominant 7th chord and identify the 'nested chord' in each case.

Therefore an A7 chord could be described as a C# diminished with an A in the bass.

For this reason it can work well to squeeze a diminished lick or run whenever we have a dominant 7th chord in a progression. It seems to work particularly well just as we change chords from a dominant 7th. For example, just before a chord progression changes from an A7 chord, slide your finger up for an A to an A# and then play the remaining notes of the A7 chord as an arpeggio; C# to E to G; and you've played a diminished run.

I've got several major blues backing tracks in my player at the base of this page, and on my Backing Tracks page. I encourage you to try this out over the Dominant Blues in A ~ which is also a free download :)

Most of all....Enjoy!
 
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