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Diminished Chords.
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The more you play,
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the more you'll come across
progressions with diminished chords.
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They add a very distinctive
sound to any tune.
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And the good news is, they aren't
really that difficult to learn.
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In this, I'm going to show you a trick
whereby all you have to learn is three
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shapes, and you'll be able to play all
the basic diminished chords, instantly.
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First of all, I'll show you how
a diminished chord is formed.
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But remember you don't really
need to worry about this,
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it's just if you want to know.
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But you don't have to think about they're
formed in order to use the memory trick
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I'm going to teach you after this.
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So one way to make a diminished chord is
to play a minor chord in root position.
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And then move your fifth down one key.
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So let's try C diminished.
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So first of all, there's C.
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[SOUND] C minor drop the third.
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[SOUND] C diminished you
also drop the fifth.
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[MUSIC]
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So it's a very distinctive sound.
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[MUSIC]
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A very dramatic chord.
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Okay, now let's see if you
can form D diminished.
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So, [SOUND] that's D,
D minor drop the third,
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[SOUND] that's D minor.
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D diminished drop the fifth.
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[MUSIC]
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Okay?
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What about E diminished?
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So let's go straight to
the minor first of all, E minor.
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[SOUND] Drop the fifth.
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[SOUND] F diminished.
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So there's the F.
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F minor, [SOUND] drop the third.
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Drop the fifth as well.
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[SOUND]
Okay.
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So you hear the drama in that cord.
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Now, lets try A diminished.
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So we will try it down here.
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So, A, [SOUND] A minor,
[SOUND] drop the fifth [SOUND].
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Okay.
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So that's one way of forming diminished
chords so you'll know what they are.
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They're the root,
a flattened third and flattened fifth.
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But imagine trying to find all
the diminished chords, all over the piano.
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Very difficult.
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But there's a trick you can use,
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because diminished chords connect
up in a very geometric way.
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So, play this shape.
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[MUSIC]
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All right, you see it's quite geometric.
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[MUSIC]
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And if you play that shape, you're
basically playing four diminished chords.
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So C diminished is [SOUND].
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E flat diminished is [SOUND].
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F sharp diminished is [SOUND].
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And A diminished is [SOUND].
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Okay, so
they all connect up into that shape.
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Now, I know that's a four-note chord
when you play the whole shape.
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But it's still going to give the tone
that you're after with the three-note
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diminished chord.
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[SOUND].
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So if you're asked to play C diminished,
you could play that [SOUND].
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If you're asked to play E flat diminished,
you could play that [SOUND].
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You can see the E flat's in it.
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If you're asked to play F sharp
diminished, you can play that [SOUND].
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If you're asked to play A diminished,
you can play that [SOUND].
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As long as the shape contains the root
note of the diminished chord,
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then you can play that shape [SOUND] okay?
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So if you were asked to play D diminished,
it's not in that shape, so that's not it.
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So that's either C diminished [SOUND],
E flat diminished [SOUND],
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F sharp diminished [SOUND],
or A diminished [SOUND].
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So that's four diminished chords
taken care of with one shape.
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And its a very distinctive shape [SOUND].
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Second shift equally as distinctive,
but in reverse.
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So it's
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[MUSIC].
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So it's very geometrical.
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And you can go to the white notes and
the outer black notes.
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[SOUND].
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So the other shape, white and
black in the middle [SOUND].
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This one has black on the outside and
white in the middle.
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So let's look at this shape [SOUND].
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So this covers four
diminished chords as well.
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So if you're asked to
play D flat diminished
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[MUSIC],
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that's it.
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If you're asked to play E
diminished there it is [SOUND].
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If you're asked to play
G diminished [SOUND], or
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if you have to play B
flat diminished [SOUND].
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As long as the root of the diminished
chord is in that shape [SOUND],
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that's the shape to use.
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Third shape,
its not quite as distinctive, but
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you can look at it as maybe
that's the odd one out.
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It's still quite geometrical
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[MUSIC].
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Okay, it's evenly spaced [SOUND].
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You can still remember it, okay?
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So this one will cover another
four diminished chords,
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D diminished, F diminishef,
A flat diminished, or B diminished.
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[SOUND] Okay?
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And now the diminished chord,
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the basic diminished chord
will have three notes in it.
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But [SOUND] this shape will give you
the basic sound that you're after.
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[SOUND] You've got 12
diminished chords to memorize,
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but all you need is three shapes.
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Now later on, you can, if you just want to
play the basic three-note chords, you've
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got the shape but if you play C [SOUND],
you can leave out the fourth note [SOUND].
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As you can see, it's not to far
removed from the whole sound anyway.
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[SOUND] And then when you start to join
these together, they make nice patterns.
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[MUSIC]
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Okay, so that's the same shape
being run together or underneath.
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[MUSIC]