Chord Tone/Arpeggio Lesson #2, Part 2

Chord Tone/Arpeggio Lesson #2, Part 2…

Up next in our group of fundamental building blocks is the Diminished Triad. One of the things that I’d like to point out about this chord/arpeggio is that it comes up a lot more often than you’d think. I have many students that have not spent enough time on this chord/arpeggio because it sounds “too dark” or “weird” or because they think that they are never going to come across it in a “real world” musical situation. I promise you that I would not waste your time with something that you’d never use. The fact is, that you will come across this chord and need this arpeggio a lot. Yes, I’ve encountered this chord in plenty of obscure and esoteric music, but I have also often encountered it while backing up pop vocalists as well as while playing beautifully melodic ballads. In other settings, it can be down right mean; the perfect tonality needed to melt one’s face off while shredding at 3 billion BPM. Clearly, this establishes the versatility of the diminished chord; it is definitely something that everybody needs to have under their fingers as well as in their ears. In it’s most fundamental application, the Diminished Triad pairs up with its corresponding Diminished chord. Simply put, if a fellow musician tells you that they are playing a C Diminished Chord then a C Diminished Triad would be the perfect choice; if they tell you that they are playing a B flat Diminished Chord then a B flat Diminished Triad would work great. Remember, my goal is to give you the information; the artistry of how the information is played is up to you. And yes, we will get to the more advanced applications I promise, but before we can do that, we have to make sure that our fundamentals are intact and available to our mind, ears, and fingers instantaneously.  So keep practicing and we’ll get there soon.

C Diminished Triad 

-Comprised of the notes C,Eb,Gb

-Comprised of the intervals 1,b3,5b

-Corresponds with the C Diminished Chord

-Written as “Cdim” on chord chart