Musical Theory VII
Diminished Chords
We now have quite the gamut of seven chords, the remaining basic one is the Diminished Seventh chord. Much like the major seventh chord, a diminshed seventh can be derived from the basic seven chord basis. Start out with the seven chord with the same name as the dimished you want to end up with. Flat the third of the chord to obtain the minor seventh. Then further flat the fifth one semitone, and the seventh (that has already been lowered a semitone in the seven chord) one more semitone. This means you should end up with the first, flat third, "flat fifth" (which because of the nature of the interval perfect fifth is called a diminished fifth), and double-flatted seventh.
For example: D diminished seventh (Ddim7). First form a D7 chord from the first, third, fifth and flat seven - D, F#, A, C. Then flat the third to obtain a minor seven (Dmin7) D, F, A, C. Now flat the fifth and the seventh to obtain D, F, Ab, Cb. (NOTE: Cb is the same note a B, but we still call it Cb so that we know what chord we are playing.) You'll notice as you play the inversions of this chord (on a piano, it is much harder to see on a guitar), that there is no "clustering" of notes found in the inversions of the previous chords we have been working with. All of the notes are evenly spaced. This is an interesting quality of the diminished chord that is the subject of this week's quiz question!
To hear the different types of seventh chords, (plus the half-diminished which we haven't yet covered) visit this website:
Hear Seventh Chords
Quiz Question
How many distinctly different diminished seventh chords are there?
We now have quite the gamut of seven chords, the remaining basic one is the Diminished Seventh chord. Much like the major seventh chord, a diminshed seventh can be derived from the basic seven chord basis. Start out with the seven chord with the same name as the dimished you want to end up with. Flat the third of the chord to obtain the minor seventh. Then further flat the fifth one semitone, and the seventh (that has already been lowered a semitone in the seven chord) one more semitone. This means you should end up with the first, flat third, "flat fifth" (which because of the nature of the interval perfect fifth is called a diminished fifth), and double-flatted seventh.
For example: D diminished seventh (Ddim7). First form a D7 chord from the first, third, fifth and flat seven - D, F#, A, C. Then flat the third to obtain a minor seven (Dmin7) D, F, A, C. Now flat the fifth and the seventh to obtain D, F, Ab, Cb. (NOTE: Cb is the same note a B, but we still call it Cb so that we know what chord we are playing.) You'll notice as you play the inversions of this chord (on a piano, it is much harder to see on a guitar), that there is no "clustering" of notes found in the inversions of the previous chords we have been working with. All of the notes are evenly spaced. This is an interesting quality of the diminished chord that is the subject of this week's quiz question!
To hear the different types of seventh chords, (plus the half-diminished which we haven't yet covered) visit this website:
Hear Seventh Chords
Quiz Question
How many distinctly different diminished seventh chords are there?
posted by Rose at
12:00 AM
2 Comments:
I'll take a crack and say three.
By
Gary, at Mon Jan 30, 11:12:00 PM MST
That is correct Gary, congratulations you get another point!!
"The diminished seventh chord comprises frequencies that are equally spaced when considered on a logarithmic axis, and thus divides the octave into four logarithmically equal portions."
Jack
(likes giving out points *grin*)
By
Rose, at Tue Jan 31, 01:20:00 AM MST
Post a Comment
<< Home