↓
 

Diminished Triads: Root, Flat 3rd, Flat 5th

PlayPiano Posted on by

Diminished Triads: The Salt Of a Musical Meal

Good morning. This is Duane. Today I’d like to talk about diminished triads. We’ve talk about major triads, a triad being a three-note chord. As you know, there’s chords that are made out of many, many notes, five, six, seven-note chords, but the basic building block of advanced chords are the triad, the three-note chord, made out of the root third and fifth of a major scale. That would be a major triad for that particular key. To make it a minor triad we lower the third a half step. To make it an augmented triad we raise the fifth a half step. Today I’d like to talk about  diminished triads. To do that we lower the third a half step and the fifth a half step, so both of these, the third and the fifth, are lowered a half step from whatever the major triad is.

 
You have to know what the scale is, of course, of the key that you’re going to play in. For example, the C-scale is like that, so it’s not hard to find the root third and fifth. Say you’re in the key of B, you’ll need to know what the B-scale is in order to find the root third and fifth of the B-scale. Right? That would be the B-major chord. Right? If I lower the third a half step, I go there and if I lower the fifth a half step, I go there.

 
Diminished, by the way, means to diminish, doesn’t I? To get smaller. Augment means to widen but diminished means to get smaller. It’s just the opposite, really, of a augmented triad. A diminished triad is like the salt of a musical meal. It’s used in transition. It’s not used as the main meal. It’s not the steak and potatoes of a meal, it’s the salt or the pepper that makes the meal a little more interesting. Okay?

 
Let’s go through the twelve major chords and make them all by simply lowering the third and the fifth a half step. That C-major, that would be C-diminished. Why? Because I lowered the third and the fifth a half step. You’ve heard this kind of thing. Basically that’s just the diminished chord and the major chord played over and over again. Okay?

 
Now here’s F-major, if you lower the third a half step and you lower the fifth a half step. This time flatting C would be C-flat. It looks like B but I’m going to have to call it C-flat because the fifth is being lowered a half step. That’s G-major, G-diminished. That’s D-major. To lower the third I go from a black key to white key. To lower the fifth I go from white key to a black key. That’s D-diminished.

 
E-major. E-diminished. Again the third goes from a black to a white, the fifth goes from a white to a black. A-diminished. That’s A-major; A-diminished, same principle. D-flat-major. Now to lower the third I have to go from F to F-flat; looks like E but I’ve got to call it F-flat. To lower the fifth I have to flat the flat. In other words instead of playing A-flat, I’ve got to go down to what looks like G but I’ve got to call it A-double-flat. Okay? That’s D-flat-diminished.

 
E-fat-diminished. G-flat-diminished. B-diminished. Notice that’s the only diminished chord that’s all white, by the way. The diminished triad, okay? B-flat-major. B-flat-diminished, lowering the third and the fifth a half step.

 
Now let’s quickly go through all the four basic triads: major, minor, diminished, and augmented. That’s C … Major, minor, diminished, augmented. F … Major, minor, diminished, augmented. G … Major, minor, diminished, augmented. D … Major, minor, diminished, augmented. E … Major, minor, diminished, augmented. A … Major, minor, diminished, augmented. D-flat … Major, minor, diminished, augmented. E-flat … Major, minor, diminished, augmented. A-flat … Major, minor, diminished, augmented. G-flat … Major, minor, diminished, augmented. B … Major, minor, diminished, augmented. B-flat … Major, minor, diminished, augmented.

 
The same thing is true in the left hand, of course. Major, minor, diminished, augmented, and so on. Okay? Get used to playing those forty-eight basic triads in both hands. Tomorrow we’ll go onto four-note chords. We’ll see you then. If you haven’t already signed up for our series of videos or newsletters, come on over to playpiano.com and do that.

 
Okay, we’ll see you there. Bye-bye for now.

 

Click on this link to watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUUestsu9As&feature=youtu.be

***For lots more good stuff on piano playing come on over to my website at https://www.playpiano.com and sign up for our free piano tips – “Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions!”

PlayPianoLogo

Here’s a great little book on chords and chord progressions on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Chords-Chord-Progressions-Exciting-ebook/dp/B0076OUGDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404158669&sr=1-1&keywords=piano+chords+duane+shinn

Back_of_book

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­____________________________________________________________________________________

Posted in Chords & chord progressions Tagged permalink

About Duane

Duane Shinn (that would be me) has good news for you if you want to play the piano. He (me) has little fat hands & stubby little fingers - not at all suited for playing the piano - more suited to making mud pies or some such. I am also fairly uncoordinated with just average musical ability - certainly not a great piano player. But I've learned a ton about music over the years and people tell me I'm pretty decent at explaining how music works & how to progress more rapidly on the piano. Over the years I have developed about 150 techniques for conquering the piano. Most professional pianists can do these techniques, but very few can explain them in a way people can understand. I specialize in making complex techniques simple. I invite you to watch a few of my free videos and see some of these for yourself before making any decision about taking any of my courses.

Comments are closed.

↑