Guide to Chord Formation by Howard Wright (Howard@jmdl.com)
Chapter 9 : Diminished, Half Diminished, and Augmented Chords
9.0 : Diminished, Half Diminished, and Augmented Chords
The only chords left to cover are the
diminished and
augmented.
Diminished Chords
The
diminished chords are either written as '
dim' or sometimes using
a small circle like the symbol for degrees (
°).
-
A diminished chord is made up of these notes:
- 1st, min 3rd, flat 5th, double flat 7th.
(
Double flat 7th is the same note as the
major 6th, but it's
usually written as
double flat 7th - don't ask me why!)
So
A diminished would be:
A,
C,
Eb,
Gb
As a
point of interest, the
intervals between successive notes in a
diminished chord are
all minor thirds.
This means if you start to build a
dim chord on a
C, you end up
with the same notes as for the
A dim.
In other words
Adim =
Cdim =
Ebdim =
Gbdim =
A+
C+
Eb+
Gb
So when you play a diminished chord, if you move it up the
neck by
3
frets you still have the same chord!!
There is also a chord called the
half-diminished, or
diminished 7th.
I usually write this one as somthing like
E7-5 - just another name for
the same chord. It's best if you're aware of the
different names used
for the same chord.
The difference between this one and a 'normal'
diminished is that the
7th of the chord is a
flat 7th, not a
double flat 7th (hence
half-diminished).
So the spelling is
1st,
min 3rd,
flat 5th,
flat 7th.
Augmented Chords
-
An augmented chord is made up of these notes:
-
1st, maj 3rd, sharp 5th
So
A augmented would be :
A C# F
(
Intervals between successive notes are all
maj 3rds - i.e. 4 semitones.)
You can see
augmented chords written as something like '
A aug' or '
A+'.
Guide to Chord Formation by Howard Wright
Reformatted and noded (with permission) by Space Butler
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