How to create Diminished Scale,Chord & Arpeggio ?

Introduction to Diminished

Hi,today i want to share little bit info about Diminished scale,chord & Arpeggio.Diminished scale is form of unstable scale.The sound like suspended & never run out.They lack something n need something after this chord.The sound like scary,creepy,suspense, & discordant.Diminished style usually used in scary movie as background sound to match soundtrack with environment & scary condition.Diminished chord can be included in your song aside from minor & major chord progression. Diminished chord abbreviation is ‘dim’.For example A diminished,we write as Adim.

Diminished chord usually rise from minor chord.There is only one diminished chord in minor chord.For Example in Am scale,we create all chord chord progression from these scale to get chords like Am,Bdim,C,Dm,Em/E(harmonic),F,&G.Looked that,The 2^nd chord is Diminished!!

Diminished Scale

General diminished scale can be arise from minor scale.The different is the basic formula of scale.For minor scale,we used 7 note for 1 octave.For diminished also used 7 note for 1 octave but some note from minor scale is modified(flatten or sharpen).For minor scale formula is 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 while for diminished scale is 1,2,3,4,5b,6,7b,7#.The different are 5^th & 7^th note.5^th note become flat while there are two 7^th note in diminished scale,one go to flat and while go to sharp.

Different A minor scale & A diminished scale :

A minor	A diminished
A,B,C,D,E,F,G	A,B,C,D,Eb,F,Gb,G#

Type of Diminished Chord

There are 2 type of Diminished chord that usually use by musician or composer :

1) Half Diminished/ Diminished triad

2) Diminished 7^th

1) Half Diminished (Diminished Triad)

Half diminished or diminished triad is chord that use only 3 note as family note on each chord.The formula is 1-3-5b.For example in A minor scale, 1 is A,3 is C and 5b is Eb.For Am chord we used 1-3-5,the note are A,C,E while in diminished we use 1-3-5b.you must flatten half step the 5^th note from Am scale to get flat of 3^rd note from Am chord to become Adim.

Examples changing minor chord to Diminished chord :

Chord root	Minor chord (m)	Half Diminished chord (dim)
A	A,C,E	A,C,Eb
B	B,D,F#	B,D,F
C	C,Eb,G	C,Eb,Gb
D	D,F,A	D,F,Ab
E	E,G,B	E,G,Bb
F	F,G#,C	F,G#,B
G	G,Bb,D	G,Bb,Db

Looked as table above,all minor chord are transposed to diminished chord.The 3^rd note from all chord chord are go to flat.the natural note become flat(E to Eb) while sharp note become natural (F# to F)because you flat for half step F# note to become F,to sharp back become F# and vice versa.Thats all some guide how to create diminished chord from minor chord.

2) Diminished 7^th (add 7^th note from scale )

Diminished 7^th chord arise from diminished triad.The different is in dim7th we have to add one more 7^th note from diminished scale as described previously.One note were added on 3 triad note to become ‘Diminished-seventh’ that have all 4 notes.These chord have 4 note,three triad note and one seventh note.Same way to create major 7^th chord from major chord or minor 7^th from minor chord,just add 7^th note from original scale.

Examples from A half diminished to A diminished 7^th :

Root kord	Half Diminished (dim)	Half Diminished 7^th (dim7 )
A	A,C,Eb	A,C,Eb,Gb
B	B,D,F	B,D,F,Ab
C	C,Eb,Gb	C,Eb,Gb,A
D	D,F,Ab	D,F,Ab,B
E	E,G,Bb	E,G,Bb,C#
F	F,G#,B	F,G#,B,D
G	G,Bb,Db	G,Bb,Db,E

Table above show how to create 7^th diminished chord by adding 7^th note from diminished scale.Examples Adim to A dim7 we add Gb note.Where Gb note come from ??.The answer is “ Gb note come from ‘A diminished scale’!.Same as other diminished 7 chord like B,C,D,E,F,G diminished 7^th.The 7^th note arise from its scale.for B dim 7^th from B dim scale (B,C#,D,E,F,G,AbA#)

As conclusion,diminished chord have 2 type diminished & diminished 7^th :

Minor --> Half Diminished --> Half Diminished 7^th

A,C,E A,C,Eb A,C,Eb,Gb