Why Are Diminished Chords Like a Bangkok Stopover?
Okay, don’t mind me - it’s late, I didn’t get to bed last night and I’m going a little bit crazy right now…
So What the Heck is a Diminished Chord?
Imagine you’re taking a long haul flight from Europe to Australia, with a stopover in Bangkok - Diminished chords are kinda like that stopover - not absolutely necessary but they make the journey that little bit more interesting…
Diminished chords are ‘odd’ in every sense of the word. For starters there are only 3 of them…
How are there only three?
Here, I’ll show you…
Look at the guitar tab below.
E |—2—|
B |—1—|
G |—2—|
D |—1—|
A |—x—|
E |—x—|
This is the tab for C dim.
It is also the tab for Eb dim, A dim and F# dim.
See, a diminished chord can take its name from any note in the chord.
You mightn’t have noticed but there are no open strings in the diminished chord shape - since you only play four strings each chord has four names.
This means you can slide the shape up along the fret board the same way you do with barre chords.
If you slide the whole chord up one fret it will look something like this…
E |—3—|
B |—2—|
G |—3—|
D |—2—|
A |—x—|
E |—x—|
Using the same rule as before and naming the chords after its notes try and guess what this chord is called…
That’s right it could be E dim, Bb dim, C# dim or G dim depending on who you ask.
Now slide the chord shape up one more fret so it looks like the guitar tab below…
E |—4—|
B |—3—|
G |—4—|
D |—3—|
A |—x—|
E |—x—|
This chord can be called F dim, B dim, D dim, Ab dim
And moving up another fret we get a chord called Eb dim, A dim, C dim, F# dim…
Hold a minute, that’s the same chord we started off with way back at the beginning - the names are repeating themselves…
Yep, your right, the names repeat themselves every three frets - so there are only three diminished chords…
But What Do You Use Diminished Chords For?
Diminished chords are like a passing chord.
They are used as a transition between two ‘more important’ chords - the Beatles used them a lot - they are what gave songs like Strawberry fields and Michelle those weird, almost haunting changeovers.
Most of the time internet guitar tabs just ignore them - if find a tab for Strawberry Fields with the diminished chords included I’d be mighty shocked
