Diminished Chords

Let’s look at how to play an F sharp diminished chord on the piano. We’ll also learn the pattern for building any other diminished chord.

What Are Diminished Chords?

Diminished chords are minor chords with the upper-note lowered 1/2 step.

So to build a diminished chord, we’ll start by building a minor chord. We can build a minor chord by taking the matching major chord and lowering the middle note 1/2 step.

Then to convert the minor chord into a diminished chord, we’ll lower the upper-note 1/2 step.

Chord Types Printable

Learn to play 17 types of piano chords using 12 different root notes with this 35-page PDF! Chords are sorted both by their root note and type.

Get the Printable

How to Play an F Sharp Diminished Chord

Now let’s build an F sharp diminished chord on the piano. We’ll start by taking an F sharp major chord – the first, third and fifth notes of the F sharp major scale, F♯ – A♯ – C♯ – and we’ll convert it into an F sharp minor chord by lowering the middle note 1/2 step: F♯ – A – C♯

Then we’ll lower the upper note 1/2 step: C

So to play an F sharp diminished chord, we’ll play:

F♯ – A – C

We can use this pattern to build any other diminished chord. We’ll first build a minor chord by taking the matching major chord and lowering the middle note 1/2 step. Then we’ll convert the minor chord into a diminished chord by lowering the upper-note 1/2 step.

Chord Symbols

Chord symbols are abbreviations for chords.

There are several ways to indicate diminished chords using chord symbols.

One way to indicate diminished chords is by using the º symbol. So we could write an F sharp diminished chord symbol as:

F♯º

Another way to indicate diminished chords is with the “dim” abbreviation. So we could also write an F sharp diminished chord symbol as:

F♯dim

Other Chord Types

Some of the other chord types we can learn are:

Major
Minor
Augmented
Second
Minor Second
Suspended
Fifth
Sixth
Minor Sixth
Seventh
Minor Seventh
Major Seventh
Ninth
Minor Ninth
Major Ninth

Conclusion

Now you know how to play an F sharp diminished chord on the piano, and you can use this knowledge to build any other diminished chord!

Diminished chords aren’t as common as major and minor chords, but it’s good to know how to build them when you need them.

Using chords to learn the piano helps us see the patterns on the piano, which opens up lots of doors of creativity in music!