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DIMINISHED 7th CHORDS

Diminished 7th chords are some of my favorite chords because they’re just so amazing and versatile!  I would like to show you how to form a diminished 7th chord, and how they can be used.

Diminished 7th chords are formed by starting with a diminished triad (root, flatted third, and flatted fifth) and then a double-flatted 7th…

If you play each of these notes on the keyboard, you can see that there are three half-steps between each note.  This is the only chord in existence that has equal spacing between each of the notes in the chord.  (Note that on the piano, you are playing an ‘A’, though because the chord is stacked in the 1-3-5-7 format as it should, the proper name is B-double-flat).  Even if you extend the chord upwards, it still follows the same note pattern by three half-steps, which could go on forever up the keyboard.  This means that the chord can sound essentially the same, and serve the same function in music, regardless of which “inversion” it is in…

Because each of the notes are three half-steps away from each other, there are really only three diminished 7th chords in existence.  You can make a diminished 7th chord starting on the notes C, C#, or D, but then when you start on E flat, you are back to the same chord you had with the root of C… (See the image below).  Likewise, when you start a chord on E, it is the same chord as was started on the root of C#.  And again, when starting with a root note of F, it is the same chord as was started with the root of D.  So really there are just three diminished 7th chords that can change root position all the way up the keyboard….

Notice that the last chord here, starting on the E flat, is made from the same notes as the first chord which started on C.  So, it is basically the same chord in a different inversion.

The other amazing thing about a diminished 7th chord, which makes it so useful, is that if you drop any one of the notes of that chord, you automatically create a dominant 7th chord.  Let’s look at the C diminished 7th chord…  When you drop the C by a half step, you have a B7 chord.

For clarity’s sake, I stacked the B chord so it is easier to read.  But the red notes in the image are the only ones that changed!  Because of enharmonic naming, the black notes really create the same sound whichever way you write them.  The E flat and D sharp are the same tone, the G flat and F sharp are the same tone, and the B double-flat and A are the same tone.

Now, if you were to start with the C diminished 7 chord and drop the E flat by a half step, you would have created a D7 chord, in 3rd inversion.

If you drop the G flat by a half step, you have created an F7 chord, in 2nd inversion…

And if you drop the A by a half step, you have created an A flat 7 chord, in 1st inversion.

From each of these V7 chords, you can then move easily into a I chord quite naturally.  As we had previously learned about dominant 7 chords, they have a strong tendency to resolve to a I chord.  So, when we created the B7 chord, the next chord we instinctively feel should come would be an E chord.  When we created a D7 chord, we can resolve that to a G chord.  When we created the F7 chord, it resolves to a B flat chord.  And when we created the A flat 7 chord, it resolves to a D flat chord.  If you’re still confused, review this post about dominant seventh chords to help you out!

Hopefully you can see how useful these diminished 7th chords can be, especially when trying to create modulations for key changes in your music.  Since there are basically only three diminished 7th chords possible, and you can create 4 dominant 7th chords from each of them, it is a simple way to lead to key changes in your music!  I hope you now appreciate the beauty and versatility of diminished 7th chords as much as I do!

And the beat goes on…

DOMINANT 7th CHORDS

Now we are going to look at one of the most important and useful chords out there… the DOMINANT 7th CHORD!!  This is so useful because it naturally leads to a resolution and makes the phrase of music sound finished.

In any key, the fifth tone of a scale is called the dominant of the scale.  So, in the key of F, the notes of the major scale are: F-G-A-B flat-C-D-E-F.  The fifth note of that scale, or C in this case, is called the dominant.  A later post will explain some of the reasons that the dominant tends to lead next to the root of the scale, but suffice it to say now that it just has a natural and pleasing sound moving from the fifth tone to the root of the scale.  This is also written with Roman numerals as V-I.

In any key, the four-note chord built on top of the dominant note has a flatted 7th tone.  Look at the fifth chord in the following progression, and notice that the fifth chord has a G-B-D-F. If played alone, this is a major triad with a flatted 7th.

Now let’s just pull out the key of F major.  Look at this example of a dominant seventh chord, resolving to the root…

You can see the first chord is a C7 chord, but spread out over the staff.  The notes are C-E-G- and B flat, which is a C chord with a flatted 7th, or in other words, a C7 chord.  C is the fifth tone of an F major scale, so this C7 chord is a dominant 7th chord in the key of F.  The progression from a dominant 7th chord to a root chord is also written in Roman numerals as V7-I.

The power of this chord is that each of the notes very naturally and easily moves to a certain tone, creating resolution from tension.  In fact, when you hear a dominant 7th chord, your brain automatically wants and expects to hear a root chord after it!  The dominant of a scale pulls towards the root, so in this case, the dominant C will move up to the root F.

Music notes are a little bit lazy also, and like to move as little as possible.  So, when you have notes that only have to move up or down a half step, they are happy!  The B flat here will slide down to an A, and the E in the treble clef will slide up to an F…

You will notice that in the final F chord, the C is missing.  It is okay to omit the fifth of a chord, as it still sounds resolved with just the root and the third.  If we readjust the V7 chord, we can get a fuller root chord at the end, but in order to do that, we have to omit the fifth tone from the V7 chord…

Notice how the G is missing from the C7 chord?  Again, the chord can still achieve its effect when you only have the root, third, and 7th of the chord.  If you put it in this format, though, you are able to resolve to a fuller F chord, with the root, third, and fifth all in place!  This is very useful in resolving the tension in the music for a beautiful and pleasing piece.  Next time we’ll talk about the amazing diminished 7th chords.  Until then, keep practicing!!

And the beat goes on…

INVERSIONS

Today I wanted to explain what chord inversions are.  You remember that a chord is typically built in thirds, in a nice-looking stacked structure, as below:

But sometimes you will see chords that are not stacked so orderly!  When you rearrange the notes of the chord, it is called an inversion.  If you take the bottom note, (or root of the chord), and just move it to the top, the chord is then seen in 1st inversion:

You can also think of first inversion as a chord that forms with the third tone of the chord as the bottom note.  From 1st inversion, you would take the bottom note again (or third of the chord), and move it to the top, putting the chord into 2nd inversion:

So the 2nd inversion chord has the fifth tone as the bottom note.  From 2nd inversion, you take the bottom note again, (or fifth of the chord), and move it to the top, with the seventh tone as the bottom note, putting the chord now into 3rd inversion:

These inversions are useful to help avoid the monotony of just the same bass notes over and over.  You will notice that the notes of the chord are the same in each of these examples, but just rearranged into a different order.  When you see a chord written that is not stacked neatly, it is most likely an inverted chord.  The progression of inversions sounds like this:

Again, the examples here are shown only on a C7 chord, for simplicity’s sake.  But the same concept would apply to any key, or any chord you choose!  Next time, we’ll dive into more depth about dominant 7th chords!  Until then, keep practicing!!

And the beat goes on…

FOUR-NOTE CHORDS

Today we will take a look at the foundations of four-note chords.  Recall from the last post that chords consist of a three-note series to create a harmonic sound.  A chord can be enriched by the addition of a fourth note on top of the basic three-note chord, placed a third above the highest note. This can give a lot of life to your harmonies and especially with jazzy sounding music.  A four-note chord is made from the tones 1-3-5-7 of a scale, stacked on top of one another. So many combinations are possible to give variety and flavor to your music!  See the example of this chord built on top of a C triad:

Notice that this chord is stacked by thirds, and consists of the 1-3-5-7 tones of the scale.  The fourth note is highlighted as that is a note added to the “base” three-note chord underneath it.  In this example, the three note chord is a “C” chord, consisting of C-E-G.  The B added to it makes this a C major 7 chord.  You can make a lot of different chords by just changing one note at a time. Above, we have a C major 7 chord, and if we simply flat the top note, we get to a C7 chord:

This is also sometimes called a dominant 7th chord, as it leads very naturally into the tonic chord of any given key.  Don’t think so much about what key it is in as the fact that it is a four-note chord where the 7th tone is flatted.  In this example, the C is dominant in the key of F, so this C7 chord would very often progress naturally to an F chord.  An upcoming post will explain dominant 7 chords in more detail.  From the C7 chord, just flat the third to create a minor 7th chord:

From this C minor 7th chord, we then flat the fifth tone, the G, and we have a half-diminished 7 chord:

The term “diminished” refers to both the third and the fifth of the chord being flat.  It is called half-diminished because the 7th (B flat in this case) remains unchanged from the previous chord.  If we want to make a fully diminished chord, then, we just flat the 7th one more time:

This is a diminished 7 chord.  One of my favorite chords because it is so versatile!  I’ll be doing an upcoming post on the amazing nature of diminished 7 chords as well.  But for now, you can see how easy it is to form different chords in any key, by just making one more note flat in succession for each chord.  You can hit the play button to hear this progression of all the chords:

If we start on the tonic note of any given key, create a 1-3-5-7 chord on top of that, and then do the same for each note of the scale, the chords will always follow the same pattern: Major 7 chord, minor 7th cord, minor 7th chord, Major 7th chord, Dominant 7th chord, minor 7th chord, half-diminished chord, and Major 7th chord.  I show the example of the key of C, since it is common, but the pattern will always be the same for any key:

This is useful to know in composing music.  As you create chord progressions in your music, you can know which notes would be good harmonies for any chord!  Four-note chords are very powerful in any style of music, but especially gives a rich and full sound to jazz music.  In the next post, we will go over chord inversions, meaning that the chord is formed with a different note than the root at the bottom of the chord.  Until then, keep practicing!!

And the beat goes on…

CHORDS

This is the beginning of a series on musical chords, to explain in more detail what chords are and how they are used in music.  This is useful in understanding the foundations of music, harmony, and structure.

Chords are a set of pitches (usually three or more) that simultaneously sound together. A basic chord is made up of three notes that are stacked on top of one another by lines and spaces, as seen on the music staff. Because each line on the staff represents a step of a third in sound, a chord is built stacking on lines or spaces of the music staff.

A C chord is built with a C as the bottom note, and the other notes stacked on the lines above:

An F chord is built with an F as the bottom note, and the other notes stacked on the above spaces:

The examples above are written as major chords, where each of the notes written would be notes found in that key’s major scale. In the first example, the C major scale would have the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C.  In the second example, the F major scale consists of the notes F-G-A-B flat-C-D-E-F.  So you can see that a chord for a certain key is built from notes that are found in their respective scales.

To make a chord minor, you simply flat the second note of the chord, which is the third pitch of the scale.  A C minor chord then, would have the notes C-E flat-G:

Musical chords serve as the basic structure for harmonies and foundations of a song, and create mood and emotion for the piece.  A major chord gives the song a more happy mood, where a minor chord is usually used to describe sad or scary emotions.

Later I will post more about formation of four-note chords, which are very important to give music more variety and flavor.  They are especially useful in jazz music.

And the beat goes on…