Modal RunsCdim Chord (Diminished)
The diminished triad stacks two minor 3rds — root, minor 3rd, flat 5th — with no perfect 5th to stand on. The notes of Cdim are C, D#, F#.
It never sits still. Horror-movie stings, the vii° chord that pulls hard back to the tonic, tension that demands somewhere to go.
Cdim voicings on guitar
Every playable, root-in-the-bass grip standard tuning offers, computed from the chord’s own formula — not a fixed shape library.
Resolve it upward by a semitone into a major or minor triad and feel how much relief that tiny move creates.
Formula and intervals
R - b3 - b5 — 3 notes.
Scales that fit Cdim
Every scale below contains all of this chord’s notes — safe territory to improvise in over it.
Also compatible: Blues, Altered (Super Locrian), Hungarian Minor, Diminished (HW).