From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: Harmony

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Diminished 7th chords

Diminished 7th chords

From the course: Music Theory for Songwriters: Harmony

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Diminished 7th chords

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- Thus far the 7th chords I've shown you in detail are the ones that occur in the diatonic scale. As you might imagine, if we use other scales in the diatonic to build chords, we are able to find different, more exotic harmonies. There is a long list of chords that stem from non-diatonic scales, much too long to review in this course. I showed you some of them when I discussed extensions earlier. You might remember the dominant seven flat five, which can be found in the whole tone scale. (piano) There is one 7th chord we can build from a non-diatonic scale that I want to discuss and that's the diminished 7th chord. (piano) A diminished 7th chord is a four note chord comprised of consecutive minor thirds. We see it occur on the leading tone of the harmonic minor scale. Let's take an A harmonic minor scale. (piano) And we'll build the 7th chord, on the 7th note, which is G sharp. G sharp up a minor third to B, up a minor third to D, and then a final minor third to F. A G sharp…

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