Hey Friend,

Playing diminished chords as barre chords is more a matter of convenience rather than design. 

With major and minor chords, when you barre across the strings, any notes fingered by your index finger (as if they would be open strings if there was no barre) work within the chord structure.

Not so with diminished chords. Because the fifth note of the scale gets lowered a half step (one fret), you can't effectively flatten any additional fifth notes that might occur as a result of the barred strings.

So you have to mute any string that doesn't fit nicely into the 1 3m 5b shape. 

What this leaves you with is an index finger spanning the strings so you can basically fret the sixth or fifth string. You don't have to press the rest of the strings down with your index finger - you actually get a little break with the diminished chord!

You can see this illustrated in the root 6 D#° barre chord exercise today. You end up having to mute the second strings because an A# note doesn't fit in real well. 

As you can see in the root 5 version, there's no need for a barre at all. But since the index finger has to reach all the way across, it's easier to just let it lay across the strings like any other barre chord.

See... convenient!

Frankly, in my opinion, it's just easier to play the triad shapes like the ones I gave you yesterday. Leave the barres for the other chords.

But hey, I try to be thorough, so have fun with these today.

Are these weeks getting longer, or is it just me? My Monday-thru-Friday days feel like I'm walking through a jungle of quicksand. Then the weekends fly by like a greased pig. Ugh...

Peace~

Dave