Diminished Chords. 2 2
The more you play, 3 3
the more you'll come across progressions with diminished chords. 4 4
They add a very distinctive sound to any tune. 5 5
And the good news is, they aren't really that difficult to learn. 6 6
In this, I'm going to show you a trick whereby all you have to learn is three 7 7
shapes, and you'll be able to play all the basic diminished chords, instantly. 8 8
First of all, I'll show you how a diminished chord is formed. 9 9
But remember you don't really need to worry about this, 10 10
it's just if you want to know. 11 11
But you don't have to think about they're formed in order to use the memory trick 12 12
I'm going to teach you after this. 13 13
So one way to make a diminished chord is to play a minor chord in root position. 14 14
And then move your fifth down one key. 15 15
So let's try C diminished. 16 16
So first of all, there's C. 17 17
[SOUND] C minor drop the third. 18 18
[SOUND] C diminished you also drop the fifth. 19 19
[MUSIC] 20 20
So it's a very distinctive sound. 21 21
[MUSIC] 22 22
A very dramatic chord. 23 23
Okay, now let's see if you can form D diminished. 24 24
So, [SOUND] that's D, D minor drop the third, 25 25
[SOUND] that's D minor. 26 26
D diminished drop the fifth. 27 27
[MUSIC] 28 28
Okay? 29 29
What about E diminished? 30 30
So let's go straight to the minor first of all, E minor. 31 31
[SOUND] Drop the fifth. 32 32
[SOUND] F diminished. 33 33
So there's the F. 34 34
F minor, [SOUND] drop the third. 35 35
Drop the fifth as well. 36 36
[SOUND] Okay. 37 37
So you hear the drama in that cord. 38 38
Now, lets try A diminished. 39 39
So we will try it down here. 40 40
So, A, [SOUND] A minor, [SOUND] drop the fifth [SOUND]. 41 41
Okay. 42 42
So that's one way of forming diminished chords so you'll know what they are. 43 43
They're the root, a flattened third and flattened fifth. 44 44
But imagine trying to find all the diminished chords, all over the piano. 45 45
Very difficult. 46 46
But there's a trick you can use, 47 47
because diminished chords connect up in a very geometric way. 48 48
So, play this shape. 49 49
[MUSIC] 50 50
All right, you see it's quite geometric. 51 51
[MUSIC] 52 52
And if you play that shape, you're basically playing four diminished chords. 53 53
So C diminished is [SOUND]. 54 54
E flat diminished is [SOUND]. 55 55
F sharp diminished is [SOUND]. 56 56
And A diminished is [SOUND]. 57 57
Okay, so they all connect up into that shape. 58 58
Now, I know that's a four-note chord when you play the whole shape. 59 59
But it's still going to give the tone that you're after with the three-note 60 60
diminished chord. 61 61
[SOUND]. 62 62
So if you're asked to play C diminished, you could play that [SOUND]. 63 63
If you're asked to play E flat diminished, you could play that [SOUND]. 64 64
You can see the E flat's in it. 65 65
If you're asked to play F sharp diminished, you can play that [SOUND]. 66 66
If you're asked to play A diminished, you can play that [SOUND]. 67 67
As long as the shape contains the root note of the diminished chord, 68 68
then you can play that shape [SOUND] okay? 69 69
So if you were asked to play D diminished, it's not in that shape, so that's not it. 70 70
So that's either C diminished [SOUND], E flat diminished [SOUND], 71 71
F sharp diminished [SOUND], or A diminished [SOUND]. 72 72
So that's four diminished chords taken care of with one shape. 73 73
And its a very distinctive shape [SOUND]. 74 74
Second shift equally as distinctive, but in reverse. 75 75
So it's 76 76
[MUSIC]. 77 77
So it's very geometrical. 78 78
And you can go to the white notes and the outer black notes. 79 79
[SOUND]. 80 80
So the other shape, white and black in the middle [SOUND]. 81 81
This one has black on the outside and white in the middle. 82 82
So let's look at this shape [SOUND]. 83 83
So this covers four diminished chords as well. 84 84
So if you're asked to play D flat diminished 85 85
[MUSIC], 86 86
that's it. 87 87
If you're asked to play E diminished there it is [SOUND]. 88 88
If you're asked to play G diminished [SOUND], or 89 89
if you have to play B flat diminished [SOUND]. 90 90
As long as the root of the diminished chord is in that shape [SOUND], 91 91
that's the shape to use. 92 92
Third shape, its not quite as distinctive, but 93 93
you can look at it as maybe that's the odd one out. 94 94
It's still quite geometrical 95 95
[MUSIC]. 96 96
Okay, it's evenly spaced [SOUND]. 97 97
You can still remember it, okay? 98 98
So this one will cover another four diminished chords, 99 99
D diminished, F diminishef, A flat diminished, or B diminished. 100 100
[SOUND] Okay? 101 101
And now the diminished chord, 102 102
the basic diminished chord will have three notes in it. 103 103
But [SOUND] this shape will give you the basic sound that you're after. 104 104
[SOUND] You've got 12 diminished chords to memorize, 105 105
but all you need is three shapes. 106 106
Now later on, you can, if you just want to play the basic three-note chords, you've 107 107
got the shape but if you play C [SOUND], you can leave out the fourth note [SOUND]. 108 108
As you can see, it's not to far removed from the whole sound anyway. 109 109
[SOUND] And then when you start to join these together, they make nice patterns. 110 110
[MUSIC] 111 111
Okay, so that's the same shape being run together or underneath. 112 112
[MUSIC]