Originally Posted By: ROG
Ah, but have you explored diminished 7ths yet?

Hi, ROG.

You mean that lovely stack of minor thirds where every note is (and isn't) the root?

I recall reading that Mozart had a particular love for diminished chords, and some people complained that they gave his music an "oily" sort of feel. grin

Back in my younger days, one of the first good music theory books I read was How To Play the Piano Despite Years of Lessons. It suggested that you could learn a bunch of diminished chords, or be lazy and learn just three diminished 7th chords.

So for good or ill, if I see a dim chord, I'll play a dim7 unless it sounds truly terrible.

I then read Jazz and Commercial Arranging that explained that harmonizing non-chordal tones using diminished 7ths may not be the best option, but it was often the simplest (and by implication, laziest).

So I think of them as "cheater" chords, and probably don't use them nearly enough. wink

They're also a nice way of taking a linear progression and making it sound more jazzy, such as changing:

I / / / | ii / / / | iii / / / | IV / / /

into:

Imaj7 / / I#o7 | ii7 / / ii#o7 | iii7 / / iii#o7 | IVmaj7 / / /

Got any other suggestions on how to use them? I'm all ears!

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?