B diminished

[carpet]

Neil, as you know, the 7th chord in the key of C Major is B Diminished. This chord has always intrigued me, from the time I learned of it in my The Complete Guitarist book many moons ago, but... I have never actually used it. Moreover, I have never even seen or heard of it being used by anyone, anywhere - at any time! Is it just there to 'make up the numbers' so to speak, or can you give any practical examples of its use.

A very low priority question, but I thought I'd ask all the same.

Thanks.

Danny

[dennisg]

Take a look at this explanation in Wikipedia, along with some examples of songs that use it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminished_triad

[willem]

carpet wrote:

Neil, as you know, the 7th chord in the key of C Major is B Diminished. This chord has always intrigued me, from the time I learned of it in my The Complete Guitarist book many moons ago, but... I have never actually used it. Moreover, I have never even seen or heard of it being used by anyone, anywhere - at any time! Is it just there to 'make up the numbers' so to speak, or can you give any practical examples of its use.

A very low priority question, but I thought I'd ask all the same.

Thanks.

Danny

Its just such a great chord...

[carpet]

Hmm. Interesting link, thanks Dennis. It seems to mostly be used out of place, going by the description - with the 2nd scale chord being converted to a diminished chord and then inverted. I wonder if it is ever used at face value...

[carpet]

Much agreed! But where does it fit???!!?

[unclewalt]

One of my few original compositions makes use of it, in A minor. The beginning part jumps between it and the root. It has sort of a Spanish feel.

[carpet]

Aha - interesting. And where can I hear your compositions? I'd like to hear what you've done with it.

[TGNeil]

The diminished triad that occurs naturally on step 7 of the major scale is not used often in that form because the 3 notes in it are also in the dominant seventh chord on step 5. In the key of C, G7 includes the notes of the Bdim triad with the addition of step 5, G. Basically the V7 chord in the key has the diminished sound within it.

Without going much further, it is more common to use dim7 and m7-5 chords as leading tone chords, ones that pull you heavily to the next chord, frequently 1/2 step higher and major or minor.

Neil

[carpet]

Aah ha. So it kinda is just there to make up the numbers, owing to its seemingly more attractive 5th step cousin. Poor thing. I'll try and give it some playtime then. It just sounds so at odds with the other chords in the key, but it could be a Cinderella.

Cheers Neil!

[unclewalt]

carpet wrote:

Aha - interesting. And where can I hear your compositions? I'd like to hear what you've done with it.

Oh, I don't record or anything. Just a thing I put together when I was learning "Moondance." I use some of the same chords from that - minor 7ths, etc. The beginning just bounces from an Am to a Bdim and back a few times, with sort of a Latin rhythm. I was also watching "Breaking Bad" at the time, so it was sort of influenced by Red Tyler's "Peanut Vendor," though it doesn't really sound like that. Somewhat similar rhythm.