Diminished Chord

A chord that consists of a minor third and a tritone. A diminished chord is triad built on the 7th degree of the major scale, taken from a diminished scale, or constructed from two stacked minor thirds. In a diminished chord, the tritone splits the octave, which means it has no real tonal center, and wants to resolve like a dominant chord. For example, an A diminished chord contains the notes A, C, and Eb, and would want to resolve like an F7 dominant chord, which contains the same notes (F, A, C, and Eb). Diminished chords are fairly common in jazz, somewhat less common in classical music, and occasionally used in pop music, where they’re generally often on the second scale degree.