Diminished 7th chords
Richard Barrett explores the dissonant nature of the diminished 7th chord and shows how it can fit into a guitarist’s musical vocabulary
Not as commonly seen ‘in the field’ as your more regularly featured 7ths, 9ths and 11ths and so on, the diminished (Root-b3-b5-bb7; b7!) 7th chord yes, that’s double is still an essential part of diatonic harmony – or the chord scale, if you prefer. We have a set structure for the major scale – tone-tone-semitonetone-tone-tone-semitone (TTSTTTS, for short) – there is a structure to how this is arranged in diatonic/chordal harmony: major-minorminor-major-major-minor-diminished
m7b5)-major. (or
This is what Western ears are used to hearing and find harmonious. If you travel to India or the Middle East, you will find different structures and conventions at play. Cue a clumsy segue here into mentioning George Harrison, who did much to popularise Indian music in the late 60s. Coincidentally, he also loved using diminished chords in songs such as Here Comes The Moon (that’s right, not the sun), Got My Mind Set On You and My Sweet Lord. The Dim7 chord is most often found linking chords chromatically, for example: C C# dim7 Dm7 D# dim7 Em7. As with all chords and harmony, you are ultimately the boss, but hopefully this info will help you make good use of these often misunderstood chords!