How to play E diminished mandolin chords

Overview

There are many positions (ways, variants etc.) to play the Ε diminished mandolin chord. In this article you can find the most common chord positions – displayed on the slideshow above, fingered for mandolin for your convenience. To help you understand how to play them, I have included step-by-step instructions, describing where to place each finger and what note this will produce. Finally, the article includes a chord chart with all possible mandolin chord positions for future reference, feel free to print it.

E diminished, All Mandolin Chord Variants

As with all chords, there are many variants of the Edim chord for the mandolin. So, if you want to explore more, see below a Chord Sheet that presents all variants for you to practice.

What is a E diminished (Edim) chord?

The Edim is a triad chord, i.e. it consists of three notes as following:

The root, which for the Edim chord is of course E
The third, which for the Edim chord is G. Note that this creates a minor third interval that consists of three half steps (E to F, F to F#, F# to G)
The fifth, which for the Edim chord is Bb. Note again that this creates another minor third interval that consists of three half steps (G to Ab, Ab to A, A to Bb).

The name “diminished” is used because the interval between the root of the chord and the fifth is a diminished fifth interval.

Note that half steps correspond to one fret difference between notes played on the same string.

See how the Edim chord is written on sheet paper:

If you want to understand more on chords theory, i.e. how they are constructed, check out the following popular article I have written some time ago: Understanding Chords Theory.

If you need a blank sheet paper to write it down in order to understand it, you can download one from theMandolinTuner free blank music paper sheet.

Two finger, Edim fingered for mandolin, 1st position

This is how you place your left hand on the fretboard:

First finger on 1st fret of second strings.
Second finger on 2nd fret of third string.
No finger on first and fourth strings.

As the bass (lowest note) of this Edim chord is the open G on the G string, this means that the chord is inverted and it is written as Edim/G.

Four Finger Edim, fingered for mandolin, 2nd position

This is how you place your left hand on the fretboard:

First finger on 1st fret of second string.
Second finger on 2nd fret of third string.
Third finger on 3rd fret of fourth string.
Fourth finger on 3rd fret of first string.

As the bass (lowest note) of this Edim chord is not the root (E note) but the Bb on the G string, this means that the chord is inverted and it is written as Edim/Bb.

Four finger Edim, fingered for mandolin, 3rd position

This is how you place your left hand on the fretboard:

First finger on 3rd fret of all strings (barre).
Third finger on 5th fret of third string.
Fourth finger on 7th fret of second string.

As the bass (lowest note) of this Edim chord is the Bb on the G string, this means that the chord is inverted and it is written as Edim/Bb.

How to Practice chords on the mandolin

There are many good articles here at theMandolinTuner for practicing chords. I suggest you start with:

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Ok, it is now time to practice. Grab your mandolin and try to play these chord variants now, it is easy, just follow the instructions!

Resources

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