Diminished 7th Chords: The Magic Door To Other Keys
Diminished 7th Chords: The Magic Door To Other Keys
Good morning this is Duane and today I’d like to talk about the amazing diminished 7th chords and the secret door that leads to everywhere. Now I know that sounds mysterious kind of like Alice in Wonderland but it’s absolutely true. The diminished 7th chords are an amazing kind of chord and I’ll show you why right now.
There are only three of them [piano playing]. Diminished seventh chords are like that. If you start on C [piano playing] that would be a diminished seventh chord. It’s diminished, the triad is diminished and that’s a double-sided 7, that’s what defines a diminished seventh chord. It looks like six but it technically in music theory it’s called a double-flatted seven.
That’s one diminished seventh chord, now go up half a step to C sharp, E, G flat and that’s another diminished seventh chord. Now go up another half step D, F, A flat, and B and that’s another diminished seventh chord. We have three diminished seventh chords so far. Now let’s go up another half step, what do you have? You have C, E flat, G flat, and B double flat. Does that right a bell? Yeah, that was our first chord wasn’t it? It’s just upside down, in other words that’s the same chord just turned upside down.
You’ve heard the kind of thing [piano playing] in scary situations, maybe in old movies. It creates a sense of anxiety. There are only three diminished chords [piano playing] that one, [piano playing] that one which you can turn upside down any way you want, and [piano playing] that one which you can turn upside down again til the cows come home. Only three diminished seventh chords.
That’s all you need to learn about diminished seventh chords. They’re members of one another and the turn upside down. Now let’s define what a diminished seventh chord is. They’re a stack of minor thirds, here’s a major third [piano playing] and I go three notes up the C scale that’s a major third [piano playing] one, two, three. That’s a minor third, here’s a fifth [piano playing], here’s a diminished fifth you come down a half step [piano playing]. Here’s a seventh [piano playing], there’s our flat of seventh and [piano playing] there’s a double flat of seventh.
It’s a stack of thirds isn’t it? A stack of minor thirds, [piano playing] it’s a minor third there to there, [piano playing] a minor third from there to there, [piano playing] a minor third from there to there, and if you want that’s a minor third up to there. It’s a stack of minor thirds and what’s true of that chord is also true of that chord, it’s a stack of minor thirds. [piano playing]
The next chord is s a stack of minor thirds D up to F, F up to E flat, A flat up to C flat. Remember that, diminished seventh chords are a stack of minor thirds. Now that’s find of amazing enough but [piano playing] did you know that just by lowering one note in any diminished seventh chord leads you to a dominate seventh? That’s why I call it a doorway to everywhere. If I lower the bottom note of that chord from C to B, what do I have? F, I’ve got B seventh and that puts me right between D and E.
One of the principles of transposing, the main principle of transposing is to find the sway of seven key, five seven chord the new key. If I’m playing in the key of C when I play C diminished and then I move the bottom note down one that’s B which is the five seven chord in the key of E [piano playing] so it goes right to E. I’m back to the diminished seventh chord, we lowered the bottom but now let’s lower this note. What do we have? Right, D of seven. If you want to get to the key of G from the key of C, you’re playing along on the key of C [inaudible 00:04:03] [piano playing] and then lower that middle note to D and then you’re over to G [piano playing].
Now let’s cut to this note, we’ll lower it a half step from F sharp or G flat to F. What do we have now? F seventh [piano playing] B flat, right? If we want to get the key of B flat we just do that. One more, the top note is B double flat if we lower it a half step it comes to A flat and that is A flat seventh. If we [piano playing] want to get to D flat that’s how we do it [piano playing].
Now the same things is true on the next chord there isn’t it? If I lower D a half step we get to D flat [piano playing] that’s D flat seventh and that leave us with the key of G flat or if you want to call it C sharp that leaves you with that note [piano playing]. Again, harmonic notes in harmonic keys [piano playing].
Let’s lower this note a half step, what do we have now? We’ve got E seventh covered [piano playing]. Whenever you see two notes together, in this situations its always true but it’s usually true too when you see two notes together you’re probably dealing with the root and the seventh. Not always but you can make a good guess and that’s the case. E seventh leads to A’s and we want to get to the key of A then you do that. Let’s take this note and lower it a half step, what’s that? [piano playing] That’s a G seventh and that leads right back to C doesn’t it [piano playing]. The last note is C flat and we lower it to B flat, what chords that? B flat seventh and that leads right to B flat.
You can see that there are doorways to everywhere; there are doorways to every single of the 12 major keys or 12 minor keys for that matter by just lowering one of the notes of the diminished seventh cord. Now what happens if you take the two middle notes and move this one up and that one down? [piano playing] You’ve got a major seventh, that’s a major seventh [piano playing] that kind of feel.
What if you lower both the top note and the bottom note? [piano playing] That’s a sixth, turns into B six. What if you go up with your little finger and down with your thumb, what’s that? I can barely reach it but that’s a B major seventh. I want you to experiment around by moving two notes, move one note first and see what happens, then move any two notes, and you’ll find literally that it is a secret doorway to everywhere.
That’s it for today, thanks for being with me. If you haven’t let come over and sign up for our free newsletter or play piano be sure to do that. We’ve got a lot of good free stuff over there, so come on over and sign up, and don’t miss it. Thanks, bye-bye for now.