![]() ![]() If you do the math, you’ll realize the B–E–A root motion makes it a cycle of fifths progression, which is why it works so well.Īnd of course – before you get ahead of me – I’m not saying the only chord that can follow vii7b5 is III, but in twenty years of writing songs it’s the only one I’ve found that’s always effective. You can put all kinds of chord before the half-diminished seventh chord, but pretty much only one chord after it: the major chord a fifth below. In major keys, the first type of progression uses the half-diminished seventh chord on the seventh degree of the scale. There are a handful of different things you can do with this chord, but we’re going to focus on three types of progression – two in major keys and one in minor keys – that you should know about. So that’s the theory in a nutshell: a half-diminished seventh chord is a regular diminished chord with a seventh that’s a whole step below the root added. You’ll often find half-diminished chords written in shorthand either as Bø – that’s a B and a slashed circle, not ‘Bø’, a wardrobe from Ikea – or as Bmin7b5 or Bm7(b5), which you can pronounce ‘B minor seventh flat fifth’ (or just, as you know, ‘B half diminished’). Instead, in popular music it’s much more common to find a chord called a half-diminished seventh, which has a seventh added on the note four half steps above the top note – in this case, A – like this: In a lot of classical music, it’s common to find what’s called a diminished seventh by adding the seventh three half steps above the top note – in this case, A flat – though this chord is rarer in popular genres. Or just play the chord and you’ll hear how it sounds totally different to a major or minor chord.) That’s because – unlike in major and minor chords – there are only six half steps from the bottom note to the top: I’m going to save you too much detailed theory on how diminished chords work – though there’s more if you’re interested here and here – but here’s a rundown of the essentials:įirst off, you probably remember when I said that chord on VII of the scale is a diminished chord. A great tool for adding a different color in a chord progression is to include one or more half-diminished seventh chords (sometimes just called half-diminished chords). ![]()
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