__Diminished Chords in Pop and Rock__

1st off, what's a Diminished Chord?

a diminished chord is
a chord that consists of a root (1), b3 (flat 3), and b5 (flat 5)
those numbers correspond to numbers in the Major scale
(for example...if you are playing a C diminished chord,
that means that you are playing the notes C, Eb, and Gb together)

remember that there are 4 broad categories of chords:

Major, Minor, Dominant, and Diminished

a diminished chord can be thought of as a Minor Chord (1, b3, 5)

but with a flatted 5 (1, b3, b5 = diminished)
or you can think of it as a Dominant Chord with the 3rd as the root
example (C7 = C, E, G, Bb), Edim = E, G, Bb, C
but we'll get more into that in a sec.
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now, if you look at the C harmonized major scale,
you see that the commonly used chords in a song in the key of C major would be:
Major Minor Minor Major Major/Dominant Minor Diminished
I ii iii IV V or V7 vi vii
C D E F G A B
in other words:
C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major or G dominant, A minor, and B diminished

notice that there is a B diminished chord, but you may also notice that
Diminished Chords make anything sound like you're trying to play Classical Music or sumthing.
so if you wanna sound more like Bruce (springsteen that is) than Bach,
then ditch this lesson and look at Harmonized Major Scale with Substitutions.
but there are still places in Pop/Rock/even in Country!!! and Jazz where diminished chords are
used...
and not just to represent the 7th chord of that key's Major Scale

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here's a couple of popular ways that Diminished Chords have been used
to move chromatically from one harmonized major scale chord to the next ...

"Hallelujah-Jeff Buckley"
G7 G#dim Amin
"baffled king composing hallelujah"

this transition is in the key of C, so notice, by looking above, that G is the V7 (the 5 chord),
A is the minor (the 6) and G# is...uh...uh...not there ;p
and that's the point of this lesson,
diminished chords can be great ways of filling in gaps between
the chords of a Harmonized Scale
now as a sidenote, he actually uses a Capo on the 5th fret, so the chord forms he's playing
relate to the G harmonized major scale. so it's the D-->D#dim-->Emin that he's fingering.
again that would be going from the V to the #Vdim to the vi (5 to the sharp5 diminished to the 6).
it allows the bass to walk up chromatically [1 fret at a time].

let's do another example - in standard tuning

"Friends in Low places"

A A#dim Bmin
"blame it all on my roots, i showed up in boots, and ruined your black tie affair"
E-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B-----------------2-------------------------2---------------------------------3----------------
G-------------2---------------------------0---------------------------------4------------------
D----------2----------------------------2---------------------------------4--------------------
A-------0----------------------------1----------------------------------2----------------------
E---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

this song is in the key of A,

Major Minor Minor Major Major/Dominant Minor Diminished
I ii iii IV V or V7 vi vii
A B C# D E F# G#
so this would be an example would be I --> # I dim --> ii

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so, now there is 2 examples of using the diminished,
to chromatically walk from a major chord to a minor chord
within the same key [harmonized major scale].

here's 5 different ways to play Diminished Chords....

in all of these examples, the root is the lowest note of the chord.

(pattern 5 of D) (pattern 2 of C) (pattern 3 of G) (pattern 1 of D) (pattern 4 of A)

D D# Emi C C# Dmi G G# Ami D D# E A A# Bmi
-2--------2-------0-----------------------------------3-----------------------2-------------------5----------7-
-3--------0-------0----------5------5----6----------0------3-----1---------3-----4---5-------5------5---7-
-2--------2-------0----------5-----3-----7----------0------4-----2---------2-----5---4-------6------6---7-
-0--------1-------2----------5-----5-----7----------0------3-----2---------4-----4---5-------7------5------
-------------------2----------3-----4-----5----------2-------x-----0---------5-----6---7-------7------x-----
-------------------0-----------------------------------3--(m)-4-----------------------------------5---(t)6---7-

notice that to play the G# and A# diminished chords above,

it's the same shape, one you play the root with your middle finger
and the other with your thumb,
with the one you use your thumb to play, it's a lot like a D/F# shape,
but your thumb is shifted up one fret (which may be uncomfortable at first)
and your other fingers are on the D,G, and B strings,
(rather than the G, B, and hiE strings.)