How to Play Diminished Piano Chords

Series Summary

The piano has been a very important instrument in the development of western music of almost every genre. Its popularity with composers rests in the fact that the tones made by its keys offer an easy means of expressing a complex melodic and harmonic relationship of notes. Each year, many people young and old alike take up piano, and many of those will seek out an instructor to tutor them in their playing ability. These people are joining a grand tradition with an illustrious history, spanning much of classical and jazz music.

In this free video series you'll learn how to play diminished chords on the piano. Expert Mike Lais shows you the root position for diminished chords, inversions, 7ths and how to put together a diminished chord progression. So watch these free videos and learn how to play piano chords today!

Video Transcript

"MIKE LAIS: Hi. I'm Mike Lais, and on behalf of Expert Village, this is diminished chord voicings. So, the diminished chord voicings. In this segment, we're going to talk about the diminished triad, the diminished 7th, the difference between a diminished 7th and a minor 7 flat 5. There is a little bit of a difference. I'll also be showing you the functions [SOUNDS LIKE] around with these chords because they're kind of, they're used little bit differently than the way you will like a major 7 or a dominant 7. A diminished 7th is one that uses a flat 3 and a flat 5 and a double flat 7. But we'll get into all that in a little bit, but for now we're just going to want to make sure that we focus on the triad and I'll show the different voicings that we have, the different inversions that we have for that. Again, an inversion is where you flip a chord upside down and instead on the root, you're going to start on the 3rd or the 5th or the 7th, just the different note that's not the root. But when we get started and we start talking about some diminished chords. Let's start with the diminished triads."