Diminished
dimIntervals · 1 · b3 · b5
Tense, unstable; resolves outward.
Chord Family
Diminished Chords
Diminished chords are tense and unstable. The triad is built from the root, minor third, and diminished fifth (1-b3-b5). The diminished seventh (1-b3-b5-bb7) is symmetrical — every note is a minor third apart — and famously slippery in jazz.
Qualities
Each variant.
Diminished 7th
dim7Intervals · 1 · b3 · b5 · bb7
Symmetrical; passes through every key. Used as a dominant substitute.
Half-Diminished 7th (m7♭5)
m7b5Intervals · 1 · b3 · b5 · b7
The ii in a minor ii-V-i.
Find diminished chords for your instrument
Compiled by
Jake Dahn
- guitar
- chord voicings
- music theory
- chord charts
Jake Dahn builds and maintains chords.lol — a one-person project of interactive chord references, printable PDF charts, and music theory laid out plainly. He's a software engineer and a guitar player who got tired of ad-bloated chord sites, so he built the reference he wanted to use. Every diagram, voicing, and article here is written and checked by him, and all of it is free.