Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

How to use diminished chords in a composition – Jazzy Blues Guitar Lesson – EP413

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn what diminished chords are and how to use them (the 3 main cases for them), as well as the main use of an augmented chord. To put everything into practice from this lesson, you’ll be learning a jazzy, blues composition that you can play by yourself.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Slow Walkthrough

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

  4. Joe S says

    Great lesson Brian! I struggle with diminished chords. I love they way they sound but I feel very clunky trying to work them into my music. This is an enlightening lesson for me. You do a great job explaining an abstract subject.

  6. Daniel O says

    Brilliant as always, your theory lessons are so appreciated. So many lightbulb moments going off with the Modes lessons I’m going to have an epileptic fit !…Now this…all those foggy shadow areas of music that forever seemed out of bounds are now bathed in light…..haha…Great work Brian. 😉

  9. Mark T says

    This lesson was a real ‘synchronicity’ moment for me: I finished this month’s challenge earlier in the week, and used lots of dim7 chords, sliding them for all they worth 😂

    It’s lessons like this that prove to me that I can improvise and sound melodic. I gained a lot of confidence doing this month’s challenge, and only did it by going through old lessons like this weeks! Excellent.

    Now, how many augmented chords can you fit into one song? Hmmm – lets find out 😂🎶

  10. Blaine L says

    Your Ry Cooder influence is coming through loud and clear here, Brian… I can almost hear Ry crooning over this beautiful melody. I’ve been puttering around trying to understand music theory for a few years, but this video really was useful for understanding WHEN to use these chords. Please keep the jazz lessons coming!!

  11. Ian M says

    Wow Brian. You managed to connect another dot for me. That progression from A-A#dim7-B-Cdim7-C# provided the switch that turned an important light bulb on. I’ve been looking for that switch for forever! I modified it a tad with AM7-A#dim-Bm7-Cdim7-C#m7 and then I descended with C#m7-C#dim7-Bm7-Bdim7-AM7. Always wondered how that worked. Thanks for the breakthrough.

    • Stacey O says

      I am not an expert on tone but will give a recommendation. Using neck pickup with guitar tone rolled back (minimal treble on guitar) turn amp to clean channel, roll back treble on amp and use a little boost either with pedal if you have one or try turning up gain a touch to your liking. I have bass and mid at 12:00 on my amp (Boss Katana). Hope that helps.

  16. Biker13 says

    Can you PLEASE go back to providing a full “play-through” / recap at the end of Part II? You used to always do that but now you only do a recap to close Part I. I really like the complete pay-through at the end of BOTH parts. I like the opportunity to really get my head around both parts individually before I move onto the complete slow walk-through. A simple request but an important one. THANK YOU.

  18. charjo says

    Question, Brian. Around 9:30, in the part 2 video, you discuss how the B diminished and A flat diminished chords both give nice resolutions to the A chord. Aren’t they actually the same chord but just with one of the different symmetrical voicings, ie. the B diminished is also an A flat diminished and vice versa?
    John

  19. Mr.Charlie says

    i don’t know if this will help anyone but for the awkward dim chord with the ring finger stretched over, I play the regular D shape and use my thumb for the bass note. i find it much less awkward

    • charjo says

      or use your middle finger for the 6th string root, ring finger for the 3rd string and bar with the index over strings 4,3,2. That feels most efficient to me. The middle finger naturally mutes the 5th string.

    • David LC says

      I went with the thumb option because there is no physical way I can fret strings 2,3,4 with my index in a barre. When I was 9 years old I did a really dumb thing that messed up my fretting index finger tip. To this day, I sometimes have no choice but to find “alternative chord shapes” to what is already alternative guitar playing. lol.
      Brian’s teaching approach, combined with a few helpful comments by other members has made my guitar playing much improved in both technique and “melody with chord” playing.
      Thanks Mr. Charlie, charjo, and Tom D
      Plus Brian of course.

  23. Mark N says

    What a great lesson this week. Not only really broadened my understanding of diminished chords but also gave loads of examples on how to use them practically and then including them into a tune for us you get to grips with. Superb!

  27. Richard R says

    First string 6th fret 2,3 string 7 fret a diminished chord?? If so was used in the late 300’s lessons just before the guitar giveaway. I remember as you used the beatles refrence and i like that lesson and play it regulary lol.
    Thanks brian great lesson

  28. Tom D says

    Thanks Brian for another great lesson – very enjoyable.

    Being aligned with your teaching that “guitar players (can be) lazy”:-) I’ll also pile on with the suggestion made earlier that it’s easiest to grab the dim7 chord voicing with bass notes “using your middle (2nd) finger on the 6th bass string, barring with your index (1st) finger to get the 4th and 2nd strings, and using your ring (3rd) finger to get the 3rd string”. It relatively easy to grab quickly, using only 3 fingers to get 4 notes, and leaves your pinky available for melody notes.

    In case anyone is interested, a great jazz standard with a bass line walk up that uses dim7 chords is “Ain’t Misbehavin'”.

    I have an arrangement by Artie Traum that might be hard to find today … Verse chords march up in a fun way (2 beats for each chord): Gmaj7 => G#dim7 => Am7 => A#dim7 => Bm7 => Em7 => Cmaj7 => Cm7 (it’s a cool climb from the 3rd fret to the 8th fret) … the verse finishes with Bm7 => to E9 => Am7 => D9 = Gmaj7 => A#dim7 (at 6th fret) => Am7 => D7

    Cheers, Tom

  29. Bill L says

    Great subject As you were teaching the chord voicings, it was determined that the little finger position on the first E string would determine the name of the diminished chord. About half way in the video, you demonstrated how/when to use the diminished chord. With a 1, 4, 5 progression, you would play the sharp diminished chord of the 4 chord. When you played the demonstration, your little finger was on the first string 5th fret. Would that not be an A diminished chord (1 chord) instead of a D# diminished chord. I looked at it many times, but maybe I’m missing something. Thanks and again, great subject for a video.

    • Brian says

      It would also be an A diminished… the diminished 7 chord is actually 4 chords (the 4 notes in the chord). So and A diminished and a D# diminished are the same chord.

      • Murray S says

        Great work Brian. I love your lessons. This is actually a really useful key to understanding the diminished chords and how they appear up the neck, in that they duplicate every minor third progressing up the neck… four frets… but with a different arrangement of the same notes.

  35. Timothy H says

    Brian, this is a great lesson for me as my guitar instructor keeps emphasizing substituting the diminished triads relative to the 1, 4 and 5 chords in a blues for example in key of A… C# dim triad for the A(because that is the 3, 5 and 7 of an A7) a F# dim triad for the 4(because that is the 3,5 and 7 of the D7) and finally the G# dim triad for th 5(because that is the 3,5 & 7 of the E7).

    I have a question about video 1 around the 9:30 mark when you talk about slipping in the “4 sharp diminished 7” chord as a sort of substitution when going from the 4 back to the 1 in and A blues progression. I’m confused about your fingering for what you are demonstrating as the 4 sharp diminished 7. To me in looks like the fingering for an A diminished 7… your pinkie is on the A(root), middle finger is on the D#(flat 5th), ring finger is on the C(flat 3rd), and your index finger is on the F#(the sixth or double flat 7th). To me that spells out an A dim 7 not a D# dim 7. Can you clarify this for me, please? Thanks!!!

    • Brian says

      It is both an A diminished 7 and a D# diminished 7. The 4 notes in the diminished 7 chord all create the same chord… so if I move that same shape up 3 frets I’m playing the same notes.. but they’re in a different order.. and if I go up 3 more frets, same thing. Hopefully you understand what I’m saying here.

  37. James S says

    Why over-complicate it by calling it the IV sharp dim? Why not just call it the I dim? It’s the same chord (D#dim and Adim in this case) and way easier for people to remember (when going from the IV to the I, throw in the I dim on the way).

    • Brian says

      To me it’s easier to think of it as a 4# diminishsed because you are already on the 4 chord, then you go to the sharp diminish of that chord.. (which follows the bass line) and THEN to the 1… a natural sequence.

  38. Tremelow says

    Great lesson again. These diminished chords add so much flavour to a progression and make any arrangement much more interesting. Really nice follow up to the other dim-lessons. Thanks!

  43. greg505 says

    Great lesson and a very nice jazzy tune. I trying to get my head around this style at the moment. What I could do with (if there is such a thing) is an explanation of why you would choose this order of chords. Eg lots of jazz is played in 2 5 1. Would that work here? What about 1 4 5 (with the diminished chord as well as Brian explains?) Here the chord progression seems to be 1 2 3 then 2 transitional chords and then to 5. The 4 chord doesn’t come in until bar 13. Why? I’m not querying what Brian has done here and it sounds great, I’m just trying to understand chord progression and when you may use one but not another. Hope that makes sense…

  49. Mario D says

    Hi Brian, at 9.38 in part 1 you mention this is a 4th chord dim7. In a blues played in A the 4th chord is D and the diminished chord you are doing is a Adim7 (I think). What is it that I don’t understand ?

  51. Bob C says

    Why is measure 16 also an E9? I get that the Ddim has D, F, G#, and B and E has G# and B, but F is a b9 to an E7, right? Where is the E in this? So, basically is this a rootless E7(b9) chord?

  52. Rich F says

    This is the beauty of Active Melody, and all of the links and connections as one explores the site! I was just looking at the monthly challenge for November 2021, which is an unaccompanied piece. I was looking at Brian’s link to the list of unaccompanied lessons there, and discovered this one! Would not have discovered it without the November dhallenge!

    Brilliant lesson! Love these jazzy diminished chords… I first came across them in Brian’s excellent EP094: unaccompanied electric blues T Bone Walker style (one of my favourite lessons)..

    This current lesson is wonderful… now, am I brave enough to try this for the November challenge?!! 😁🎸

  53. Rich F says

    Hi again all…

    Just discovering something interesting here! While practicing this lesson, and making the shape for the diminished chords, I realised that this is not on the same set of strings as the jazzy chords in the EP094 lesson (the lesson that I mentioned above)… so I looked at EP094… it is the same four fingered z shape but, in EP094, a different set of strings: the middle strings! In EP094, Brian dies not name rhe chord, just calls it the T Bone Walker chord…

    So, I did some more investigating into the T Bone style… I found EP398… which then has a link to this grest T Bone lesson from Brian:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OuwtvImwDdU&t=10s

    Brian calls the T Bone chord on the middle strings an A9 over c sharp.

    So, it has occurred to me, we could switch between this Z shaped chord on the middle strings and then skip over to the Z shaped chord on strings 1-4 to switch between the jazzy chords A9 and the diminished chord? Just trying it now to see how it sounds!

  54. James B says

    Hi Brian,
    I’ve been a member for only a few months so am still discovering the many gems to be found in your lessons archive. I’ve been playing for a long time but am finding your lessons to be a tremendous value. You are a superb teacher!
    Just a quick comment on the “Lawrence Welk” chord at the end of this lesson (the “Asus2 add6”) … I think many would also call that an A6/9 (or D6/9 with no root on top 4 strings). I learned it from Pat Donohue many years ago and he would probably get a kick out of the “Lawrence Welk” characterization 😉

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