How To Use The Diminished 7 Chords

 

How To Us e The Di mi ni s hed 7 Chords

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How To Use The Diminished 7 Chords Guitar Lessons for All Abilities and All Ages. Private Lessons and Online Resources!

By Brian Turner The diminished 7 chord chord is a ver veryy unique un ique and useful chord. Some of us remember the Mighty Mouse cartoons with the girl tied to the railroad tracks by the villain while the locomotive speeds speeds down do wn the tracks headed toward the damsel in distress. We hear the diminished 7 chord in the background ascending asc ending chromatically chromatically bringing us to the edge of our chairs chairs hoping hop ing Mighty Mouse will come come to save the day. And, of o f course he does and the diminished 7 chord resolves to major chord and we lay back in our chairs relieved that all is well. Well, creating tension for trains and suspense movies is one way to use the diminished 7 chord; however, there is much more the guitarist can do with it. The diminished 7 chord is used u sed in jazz and blues extensively. extensively. The first time a guitar student student fingers a diminished diminished 7 chord, he might be be tempted to move on to other o ther things because because of the sound. sound . It sounds dissonant and -- at first -- it might not no t seem to be a useful chord. Howev However er,, keep in mind that it needs n eeds to be hear h eard d in context with other ot her chords chords to make sense. sense. The chord it’s coming coming from -- and the chord it’s going to -- makes all the difference difference in the world. The diminished 7 chord is rarely played more than two beats in a measure. The most common use of the diminished 7 chord in jazz is to re replace place the vi cchord hord in the I, vi, ii, V chord progression with the bii dim7 chord. For example, the I, vi, ii, V chord progress progression ion in the key k ey of C is CMaj7, Am7, Dm7, Dm7, and G7. Using the substitute, the progression is CMaj7, C#dim7, Dm7, and G7. The diagrams below illustrate the chords. Give each chord 2 beats.

The is substituted also used inwith bith lues. chord the ated I, IV,in V chord chor d ro diminished re ression ssion can 7be wblues. theThe #IVIVdim7 dim 7 as in illustrated illustr the chord   1 of 4

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How To Us e The Di mi ni s hed 7 Chords

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  diagrams below. Give each chord diagram four beats and you'll have the twelve bar blues.

The diminished 7 chord is unique for several reasons. First, it is symmetrical. The diminished fo ur interval four inter The 1, the b3, the th e b5, bb7 is the same as a 76).chord Thesehas intervals arevals: alls:1½ tones apart. That is,and 1 to ab3 is a(bb7 minor third distance (1 ½ tones). The distance from b3 to b5 is also 1½ tones. The same is true true for fo r the b5 to the bb7. bb 7. This is why why I say the th e diminished 7 is symmetric symme trical. al. Second, any note o f the chord can be the root. For example,  Cdim7,, is also Gb dim7, Adim7, and Eb dim7.  Cdim7 dim7. So, by knowing one dim7 chord you actually know kno w four. The third reason reason the dim7 is unique is because the chord inverts every three frets (every minor third). In other words, if I take Cdim7 and slide it up the fret board three frets frets I have the same four notes -- the same sam e chord. I simply simply played an inversion inversion or o r a different voicing voicing o f the th e same chord. Slide up three more frets and it inverts again. In the illustration below, we have four voicings of the same chord.

Although there are are many ways to play any chord, there are are three fingerings fingerings that I use most of the th e time. Which Which fingering of the diminishe d iminished d chord I use u se depends on the chord before and after it. The three fingerings are seen in the chord diagrams below. I used G but the fingerings are movable and work in every key.

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How To Us e The Di mi ni s hed 7 Chords

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If I’m playing chords with the root on the sixth string, then I’d play the chords like this:

If I’m playing chords with with the root on o n the fifth string, string, then I’d probably p robably do this:

If the root is on the fourth, then I’d play this:

If the th e song keeps k eeps repeating repeating the progression, progression, then I’d invert invert to make it more interesting. intere sting. Keep in mind that F#dim7 and Adim7 are the same. same. I usually name n ame the dim7 by the lowest note as shown in the following fo llowing chord diagrams: diagrams:

Anoth er way to get yo ur invers Another inversion ion is to go up a tritone. The tritone tritone or o r the b5 is the note no te that is exactly half way to the th e octave. octave. Below I illustrate illustrate tritone inversions:

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How To Us e The Di mi ni s hed 7 Chords

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I hope hop e this article article helps helps shed some light on using u sing the diminished 7 chord. chord. Like Lik e man, no chord cho rd is an island. island. It needs n eeds other chords chords to function fu nction properly. guitarlessonsbybrian.com[1]

References 1. ^  guitarlessonsbybrian.com guitarlessonsbybrian.com  (guitarlessonsbybrian.com) Excerpted from How To Use The Diminished 7 Chords  http://guitarlessonsbybrian.com/advanced_3/index.html

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