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Minor
Guitar chord diagrams and chord theory. This is the Chord Section of Olav Torvund's Guitar Site.
Modified: Jan 8 2008
Minor
Guitar chord diagrams and chord theory. This is the Chord Section of Olav Torvund's Guitar Site.
Modified: Jan 8 2008
6
Guitar chord diagrams and chord theory. This is the Chord Section of Olav Torvund's Guitar Site.
Modified: Jan 4 2008
Sonic shapes
Guitar chord diagrams and chord theory. This is the Chord Section of Olav Torvund's Guitar Site.
Modified: Jan 4 2008
Major
Guitar chord diagrams and chord theory. This is the Chord Section of Olav Torvund's Guitar Site.
Modified: Jan 4 2008

Previous page:	Bbdim	Next page:
Previous page: dim	Bbdim	Next page: Aug

The A# / Bbdim-chord

Find chord shapes

Go to the dim chord page for general information on the dim chord.

Bbdim has the notes Bb-Db-Fb.

In diatonic contexts, you will meet the Bbdim as the VIIdim chord in the key Cb-major. If you should happen to play in B-major, which is enharmonic with Cb-major, you will meet exactly the same chord as A#dim. The spelling of the A#dim would be A#-C-#-E. None of these keys are among the favorite keys for guitar players - or players on other instruments for that matter. In the following I will only refer to Bbdim, and not the enharmonic A#dim.

It is more likely that you will meet the Bbdim triad as part of the Gb7 chord, than as a pure Bbdim chord. Bbdim can be seen as Gb7 with the root omitted, and you will sometimes see chords labeled Gb7 that really are Bbdim.

You can also meet the Bbdim as the IIdim chord in Ab-minor. This holds for natural minor, harmonic minor and descending melodic minor. In ascending melodic minor, the sixth is raised one half step, and the diatonic ii chord would be a major chord. In Ab-minor it would be Bb. In harmonic minor and ascending melodic minor, we will also meet the dim chord as VIIdim. We can have Bbdim as VIIdim in Cb-minor. It is more likely that a guitar player will be in B-minor than in Cb-minor, and we will then meet the same chord as A#dim. But again we will probably meet the triad as part of a 7th chord, which would be Gb7 or the enharmonic F#7.

Some general comments on chord-voicings and fingerings.

Too many guitarists think of chords as ways to place the fingers, and not as a way to get good sounding harmonies. If you are just strumming the chords, open chord voicings where you play all or almost all strings may be a good choice. To get access to more chords, you supplement with barré-chords. For rhythm guitar, particulary electric rhythm guitar, barré chords will often be a better choice left-hand damping is easier. But still you need to know how to play one chord in more than one position, to facilitate smooth chord changes. (You do not want to jump up and down between 3rd and 10th every time you chage a chord. Three-, four and five note voicings may not work very well in this context. You have to be very precise with your picking hand and/or be able to damp out the strings you do not want to play,and it requires som control. Skip-string voicings requirese precise damping, and are generally not a good choice.

If you are playing solos and chords, you should always know how to play the chord you are soloing over, close to where you are playing the solo. It makes it easier to get home if you are about to get lost in a solo. For more sophisticated fingerpicking, chord soloing and bass-line + chord style playing, it is crucial to know may chords. You should be able to play the right chord over any bass-note played anywhere on the neck, or you should be able to play the melody on top of any seqence of chords. The good chord-soloists play bass-lline, chords and melody – and they even improvise in that style. For this playing you need to know how to voice the chord with the right bass-note at the bottom and the right melody-note on top, without compromizing a sophisticated harmonic structure. Then the skip-string voicings maight become very handy, in addition to the other chords.

If you find some of the fingerings too difficult (they are all playable – I have tried all chords on these pages), go here for some tips on how to work your way around the problems.

Open chord fingerings
Even though you may play a few open strings, there are really no open fingerings for dim-chords

Barré chord fingerings

There are no really barré chord fingerings either.

Closed positions
For the diminished triads, I do not separate the adjacent string voicings and the skip-string voicings.


Voicing: 1-5b- 1-3b	Voicing: 5b- 1-3b	Voicing: 3b-5b- 1-3b	Voicing: 3b-5b- 1-3b	Voicing: 3b-5b- 1
These chords are built around the known D-shape in a not so well known position.


Voicing: 1-3b-5b	Voicing: 3b-1-5b	Voicing: 3b-1-5b
This is the basic Root position diminished triad on 6th, 5th and 4th string.	You can recognize this as an E7-shape. The second has an added root note on the 1st string. The root on the 6th string in the first and on the 6th string in the third chord in this group, connects to the chords in the next position up the neck. The last chord gives a partial D7-shape on 1st and 2nd string, a position to build from further up the neck.


Voicing: 3b-5b-1	Voicing: 1-3b-5b-1	Voicing: 1-3b-5b
The first two chords are the D7-shape. When you finger only these three notes, you drop the root from the 7th chord, and ends up with the diminished triad.	It is still the basic D7-shape, but in the first we have added the root on the 6th string, and in the second we have dropped the root on the 1st string.


Voicing: 1-5b-3b	Voicing: 5b-1-3b	Voicing: 1-5b-1-3b	Voicing: 3b-5b-1-3b
This shape is connecting to the D7-shape based chord on the frets below.	You should recognize this as the D-minor shape.	These are the two previous chords combined, and given with two different fingerings.	You should see how this is built from a D-minor shape, but is climbing up the neck.


Voicing: 3b-5b-1	Voicing: 3b-5b-1-5b	Voicing: 3b-1-5b
This is based on what I have called the Middle D-shape. You should see how it connects to the chords one fret below.	Here we have just added another 5bth.	These chords are very often used as 7th without roots in *Freddie Green style jazz comping.*


Voicing: 3b-5b-1	Voicing: 5b-1-3b	Voicing: 3b-5b-1-3b
The first group of chords are built from the sonic shapes Top Triangle and Bottom Triangle, and then they are combined. You should also see the relationship with the A7-shape. Then the next chord is once again the Root position diminished triad, which shows the connections further up the neck.			Voicing: 1-3b-5b


Voicing: 5b-1-3b	Voicing: 1-3b-5b	Voicing: 3b-1-5b	Voicing: 5b-1-3b-1	Voicing: 1-3b-1-5b	Voicing: 1-3b-5b
The two building blocks in these chord positions are the D-minor shape and the A7-shape. From there you should also see the relationship with the 7th chord. The Bbdim is contained in the Gb7 chord.					This is the basic Root position diminished triad on 3rd, 2nd and 1st string.