Diminished triads are formed by lowering the 3rd and the 5th of a major triad. (A triad is a 3-note chord). Remember that a major triad is formed from the root, 3rd, and 5th of a major scale. Watch this short video:

For more information on diminished triads click on Diminished Chords

Once you know all the major chords, it’s easy to form diminished and augmented chords by just changing one or two notes. Watch this short video and see how easy it is to learn them all and understand them.

Piano chords come in all flavors — major, minor, diminished, augmented, and many kinds of extended chords such as 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, 13ths, etc. This 50-minute video will give you a good introduction to piano chords and prepare you for more in-depth study:

Chords of all kinds: Major, minor, diminished, augmented & extended chords from chordman on Vimeo.

A diminished triad is formed by lowering both the 3rd and the 5th of a major triad. For more complete information, please go to:

http://www.playpiano.com/101-tips/6-diminished.htm after you watch this short video.

You wouldn’t sit down to a meal of salt and pepper, but instead you might add them to your meat & potatoes to make your meal more tasty. The same is true of diminished triads. You wouldn’t build a song out of them, but by using them sparingly, you can add taste to any musical meal.

There are four basic kinds of triads (3-note chords) in music:

Major triads: composed of the root, major 3rd, and perfect 5th of a major scale.

Minor triads: composed of the root, minor 3rd, and perfect 5th of a major scale.

Diminished triads: composed of the root, minor 3rd, and diminished 5th of a major scale.

Augmented triads: composed of the root, major 3rd, and augmented 5th of a major scale.

As an example, the C major scale is:

C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

So a C major triad would be:

C, E, G

A minor triad would be:

C, Eb, G

A diminished triad would be:

C, Eb, Gb

An augmented triad would be:

C, E, G#

About 90% of the songs we know or hear on the radio or TV (or on our IPOD’s or other MP3 player) are written in a major key. That means that most of the chords in those songs are major chords — only 20% or so are minor chords.

The other 10% of songs and musical compositions are written in a minor key, which means that there will be several minor chords within the context of the piece.

So if nearly 100% of all songs contain major and minor chords, what place is there for diminished and augmented triads?

They are the salt and pepper of a musical meal.

In other words, major chords are like the main dish — the steak, if you will, of a song. Minor chords are like a side dish of corn or broccoli (yuk!) or whatever.

You would never sit down to a meal of just pepper or just salt, would you? Same way here; you use diminished and augmented triads to add spice to your meat and potatoes.

So here are the 12 diminished triads:

C dim: C, Eb, Gb

F dim: F, Ab, Cb

G dim: G, Bb, Db

D dim: D, F, Ab

E dim: E, G, Bb

A dim: A, C, Eb

Db dim: Db, Fb, Abb (same as G)(By the way, Db dim is enharmonic with C# dim)

Eb dim: Eb, Gb, Bbb (same as A) (Eb dim is enharmonic with D# dim)

Ab dim: Ab, Cb, Ebb (same as D) (Ab dim is enharmonic with G# dim)

Gb dim: Gb, Bb, Dbb (same as C) (Gb dim is enharmonic with F# dim)

Bb dim: Bb, Db, Fb (Bb dim is enharmonic with A# dim)

B dim: B, D, F

So diminished chords are used to add spice to your musical meal. You don’t linger on them, but use them as transition chords between a major and another major chord, or between a major and a minor chord, or sometimes even between two minor chords.

For example, let’s say you are playing “Amazing Grace” in the key of F and your first chord is F major on the words “Amazing grace”. As you transition to the Dm chord on the word “sweet”, you can insert a C# diminished triad on the word “how”. It only lasts one beat, but it adds interest to the song.

As you play various songs, look for opportunities to use diminished triads as transition chords. And just like salt is to a meal, so diminished triads are to a musical meal.