How to play F diminished mandolin chords

Overview

There are many positions (ways, variants etc.) to play the F 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 on the mandolin fret board and what note this will produce. Finally, the article includes a chord chart with all possible Fdim mandolin chord positions for future reference, feel free to print it.

F diminished, All Mandolin Chord Variants

As with all chords, there are many variants of the Ddim 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 F diminished (Fdim) chord?

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

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

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

See how the Fdim 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.

Three finger, Fdim fingered for mandolin, 1st position

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

First finger on 1st fret of fourth till first strings (big barre) string.
Third finger on 3rd fret of third string.
Fourth finger on 2nd fret of second string.

Note that as the bass (lowest) note of this Fdim chord is not the root F, but it is Ab played on the 1st fret of the G chord, this is an inversion of the Fdim and it is written as Fdim/Ab.

Four Finger Fdim, fingered for mandolin, 2nd position

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

First finger on 2nd fret of second string.
Second finger on 3rd fret of thirdstring.
Third finger on 4th fret of fourth string.
Fourth finger on 4th fret of first string.

three finger Fdim, fingered for mandolin, 3rd position

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

First finger on 4th fret of all strings (barre).
Third finger on 6th fret of third string.
Fourth finger on 8th fret of second string.

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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