Diminished Chord Guitar – Going Into Deep Chord Theory

There’s much confusion around the purpose of diminished chords and how they work in different songs.

But, if you talk about the music, there is an absence of fast and hard rules here, with exceptions if something sounds good.

But you must go through the tested and tried functions of those diminished chords if you want to learn more about the subject.

Traits and Characteristics

Diminished kinds of chords (for example referring to some diminished 5th) have a very unstable sound.

Also, they form a tension in the air.

They also are not able to completely resolve the melody, and that is what makes those chords wonderfully intriguing for use in the creative fields of music.

When To Properly Use it?

There are many reasons and times when it is wise to use a diminished chord. As it is often mentioned, in many cases in the triads there are those times extended to some half diminished, and many completely diminished 7th chords. That is mainly because they really sound far more powerful and interesting in that way.

The essence is that you’re performing the diminished types of triads in two of those variations in all cases, so they’re really a stronger, and far more colorful triads versions.

So, regardless of that if you have the intentional or unintentional creation of a diminished chord in some triad, then it is wise to try both dim7 and m7b5. You can also use this diminished chords as a form of transition to some other chords.

Formula – 1-♭3-♭5

In some major keys, the regularly diminished chords are built off in some 7th degree from the regular major scale. So, if you create a form of diminished chord completely from this parallel type of major scale (for example C dim chord from some C major kind of scale then you should use the c.
If you have to create a plain type of diminished chord, well, all that you got to accomplish is to very nicely remove the note VI. Or, in the other case, you must learn some very movable type of pattern. That is the completely same thing just like for the all other types of chords.

Diminished Patterns

So, there are many of these playable diminished kinds of patterns. There are around 9 basic ones. And, you’ll surely notice some great amount of similarities among those, so you’ll really see in some moments that, for example, the Dim7 types of patterns for diminished chords are easier to use than the others.

You will also often see some m7b5 kinds of chords as different iim7b5 chords which can be in a minor type of ii-V-I key. Also for regular dim7 chords, there are rare patterns, so you will surely see that this chord is being used for sounding of sound 7b9 ones.

That happens if you play some half-step higher above the root in the case of some underlying chord.

Conclusion

Each of the diminished chords and also their possible inversions are very useful in different genres and sub-genres of music. The goal is to work them into you chord progressions, and that is not an easy task.

Because, for example, diminished seventh types of chords are very beautiful when they are used correctly, but they are bad if you just throw them in, so if you want to master them you need to be a more advanced level musician.

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