15. Diminished Chords
Today will be looking at a third type of chord, the diminished chord.
"Diminish" means to lessen. Think of dimming the lights.
As we can see in our chart, the diminished chord is the 7th chord in the scale, and it usually has a degree symbol next to it to show that it is diminished.
To create a diminished chord, you flatten the third note, like in a minor chord, then you flatten the fifth note.
Take a look at the three images below.
What is similar about all three? How do they differ?
We can see that the major chord (the first one) has no flats, the minor chord (the second one) has a flattened third, and the diminished chord (the third one) has a flattened fifth.
The meaning of diminished, to lessen, applies to this chord because the distance is lessened between the root, third, and fifth by lowering the third and fifth by a half step.
Keep in mind that you won’t always get a flat symbol with lower a third or fifth. For example, if the chord is F# and we make it an F# diminished it, the process looks like this:
Use this keyboard diagram to help you change chords into diminished ones:
