Chords for R&B Passing Chords - Part 1: Diminished Chords

Hey what's up guys, today we're looking at diminished chords, what they are and how
we can use them in our playing and chord progressions.
Of course this stuff doesn't just apply to
R&B but you might consider these [E] when writing R&B songs.
[Ab] The word diminish means [Eb] to shrink, to make smaller [Bm] and the same applies in music.
[Bb] We
get a diminished [Ab] chord from taking our major chord and shrinking [Fm] it, bringing the notes
[C] closer together.
Here I'm playing a regular C major chord, built from the 1, 3 and 5 notes
of the C major scale.
1, [E] 2, 3, 4, 5, [C] 6, 7, 8.
1, 3, 5.
To create a C diminished chord
[Em] all we have to do is flatten the 3rd one [Eb] semitone and flatten the 5th one [Gb] semitone.
So all we're
[Ebm] doing is moving each [C] note one [Cm] semitone to the [C] left.
And that is our C diminished chord.
Notice that the notes are now closer together in comparison to our C major chord. _ _
[A] Let's
take a look at one more chord, A major and apply the same methodology.
So we have our
1, 3 and 5, A, C sharp and E.
And we're going to flatten the C sharp, the 3rd to [Am] a C and
flatten our 5th, E to an [A] Eb.
A diminished.
Super simple stuff.
An easier way to look at it though is by looking at the intervals, the distance between the
notes.
Each note has 3 semitones between.
[E] Minor 3rd [Bb] intervals.
1, [C] 2, 3.
[Db] 1, 2, [Cm] 3.
So now that we've got that, we can now move onto the chord I actually want to show you
for this tutorial.
The diminished 7 chord.
Which again is [E] super simple as the [C] same rules
apply.
We can stack a 4th note on top by using the same minor 3rd interval.
So 3 semitones.
1, [Ab] 2, [Cm] 3.
_ So this gives us [Gb] our C diminished 7 chord. _
_ Let's do the same for our [Eb] A [A] diminished.
Now let's count up 3 semitones.
1, [C] 2, 3.
And here we [Gb] have our A diminished 7.
So now you know what a diminished chord is and how to build it, let's take a brief moment
to look at how we can actually use it in a [G] chord progression.
So it's often used as a passing [F] chord as it creates a sense of lift and tension and I
like to use it in transition to a minor chord.
So for example if I'm playing an F major 7
and I want to get to an A [Am] minor 7, I can pop in a G sharp diminished 7 chord in between
them.
[F] _ _ [Fm] But why G sharp diminished?
Well I'm building my chord around the semitone below
A, [Ab] G sharp and using it as a leading note.
[F] _ [A] This is something you often do in R&B and
gospel of course.
[F] It creates that tension and release once you resolve.
_ _ [Ab] _ The F [Am] major
however is irrelevant.
I can play any chord first but use this diminished chord as a
mode of transit to my minor chord.
So I could play a G, [G] _ _
[Ab] G sharp diminished 7, [Am] A minor 7.
Or C, [C] _ _ [Ab] G sharp diminished 7, [Am] A minor 7. _
[Dm] Or D, G [Ab] sharp diminished 7, [Am] A minor 7.
We're
just using [C] this chord as a mode of transit to our A minor 7 no matter what station we're
coming from. _
But let's flinch out to another minor chord. _ _ _
Let's play A minor 7, _ _ [Db] C sharp
diminished 7, _ [Dm] D minor 7.
And we're doing the exact same thing here using our C sharp, the
note [Db] which is the semitone above our D [A] as our leading note to [Db] arrive at [D] our D minor
7 and we're building our diminished chord around that.
However this would actually sound
better if we [Db] inverted it.
So let's take the G and [E] the A sharp, the two top notes and move
them one octave below.
[F] Which in fact [Db] gives us a G diminished 7 for those eagle [Bb] eyed amongst
us.
But let's just say some interesting stuff happen when you start inverting diminished
7 chords.
But we won't get into that today as I don't want [Bb] to create too much confusion.
However if we [Db] play our C sharp in the [Dbm] bass you can still call this a C [Db] sharp diminished
7.
So we have [Am] A, C sharp diminished 7, [Db] D [Dm] minor 7.
And that is it.
So this is one of the ways
we can use diminished chords [Am] when writing chord progressions as [Dbm] passing [Dm] chords that
create a bit of tension and release.
Music scholars amongst us, what are some of the
other ways we can use diminished chords?
Feel free to [C] share with us down in the comment
[G] section below and share your knowledge.
Thanks guys for watching, be [Eb] sure to subscribe for
next week's music [Ab] theory video where we're going to [C] continue on this subject and I'll
give you another chord that you can use as a passing chord to add in to your chord