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The Half-Diminished 7th Chord

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What in the world is a Half-Diminished 7th Chord?

Duane: Good morning, this is Duane.

 
We’ve been taking up various kinds of 7th chords and we started out with a dominant 7th. We said a dominant 7th was a root, 3rd, 5th and not the 7th degree of the scale but the lowered 7th degree of the scale, okay. A dominant 7th.

 
Then we took up a minor 7th which is simply a minor triad with that same 7, the lowered 7. That’s a very mellow chord, isn’t it?

 
Then we took up the major 7th chord which is the root 3rd, 5th and the 7th degree of the scale and there’s a place for all these. The 7th chords are used as transition chords. They want to move from one place to another, they’re not … They’re [pregnant 00:00:42] chords, they want to move don’t they? 7th chords are also used in the blues a lot of times.  You hear that in the blues all the time, okay.

 
Minor 7th chords are very mellow chords. They’re often heard in ballads. Not the only place, but they are often heard in ballads, okay.

 
Major 7th chords are very soothing, kind of sleepy chords and we’ve said in Ebb Tide or Moon Glow … Not Moon Glow, but Misty, we have a major 7th chord.

 
Then yesterday, we took up diminished 7th chords. A diminished 7th chord is a diminished triad plus a double flat in 7. Like I said, those are transition chords … If you want to transition between various chords. We’ve said there’s only three of them. There’s a C diminished 7th. A C Sharp diminished 7th and a D diminished 7th, because any note of that chord can function as a root. In other words, that’s not only a C diminished 7th, it’s E Flat diminished 7th, G Flat diminished 7th, F Sharp diminished 7th, A diminished 7th. And that chord is not only a C Sharp diminished 7th, but it’s E diminished 7th, G diminished 7th, and B Flat diminished 7th and so on.

 
Today, we’re going to take up the half-diminished 7th chord. The half-diminished 7th is also a transition kind of chord. It’s not something you camp on, but it’s used as a transition. It’s made out of the root, the flat 3rd, the flat 5th and the flat 7th. You’ve heard that kind of thing. If, by the way, you put the note that’s two whole steps below the root under it, you have a very pleasant chord that is essentially like a 9th chord. A C diminished 7th chord could also be considered A Flat 9th. That was terrible. You get that feeling, right? My hands are little small so sometimes it gets the wrong note there. Okay, enough said about that.

 
So that’s a half-diminished 7th: root, flat 3rd, flat 5th and flat 7th. To find the next one, you simply go up a half a step. To find the next one, you go up half a step.  To find the next one, you go up half a step. Find the next one, you go up half a step, and so on. They’re very easy to find.

 
That’s it for 7th chords thus far. Dominant 7th. Minor 7th. Major 7th. Diminished 7th and half-diminished 7th. Tomorrow, we’ll take up another kind of 7th- 7th of the flat 5 and see how that’s used a bit. Then what we’re going to actually do is play some songs that use these chords in context, like I played the blues a little bit there. I’ll do that with all the types of chords. All the types of 7th chords that is.

 
If you enjoy these little short videos about various aspects of piano playing or chords, come on over to PlayPiano.com and sign up for our whole series of chords. Our whole series of videos, not only on chords, but on techniques and other things. Hope to see you there. Bye-bye for now.

 

 

How did we do?

Click on this link to watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rhFXSwcOYc&feature=youtu.be

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Here’s a great little book on chords and chord progressions on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Chords-Chord-Progressions-Exciting-ebook/dp/B0076OUGDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404158669&sr=1-1&keywords=piano+chords+duane+shinn

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Posted in Chords & chord progressions Tagged , permalink

About Duane

Duane Shinn (that would be me) has good news for you if you want to play the piano. He (me) has little fat hands & stubby little fingers - not at all suited for playing the piano - more suited to making mud pies or some such. I am also fairly uncoordinated with just average musical ability - certainly not a great piano player. But I've learned a ton about music over the years and people tell me I'm pretty decent at explaining how music works & how to progress more rapidly on the piano. Over the years I have developed about 150 techniques for conquering the piano. Most professional pianists can do these techniques, but very few can explain them in a way people can understand. I specialize in making complex techniques simple. I invite you to watch a few of my free videos and see some of these for yourself before making any decision about taking any of my courses.

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