0:00

In. Episode One Hundred and Fifty Nine

0:02

of the Guitar Music Theory Podcast. I

0:04

discuss every type of seventh chord and

0:06

how to use it. To.

0:26

Readings: Guitar Engineers Welcome to the

0:28

Guitar Music Theory Podcast! If you're

0:31

captivated by the magic of guitar

0:33

music, a eager to unravel the

0:35

mysteries of Music Theory, you're in

0:37

the right place. I'm Desi Sirna,

0:39

your host, fellow guitar enthusiast, and

0:41

author of Fretboard Theory, Guitar Theory

0:44

for Dummies, Guitar Picking Mechanics, and

0:46

more. In each episode of this

0:48

podcast, I delve into the fascinating

0:50

world of guitar and Music theory,

0:52

demystifying complex concepts and providing practical

0:54

insights to help you become. A

0:57

more informed and skill guitarist. Together

0:59

we'll explore chord progression, scales, improvisation,

1:01

techniques, and more, unlocking the secrets

1:04

that make guitar music and irresistible

1:06

art today. In Episode One hundred

1:08

and Fifty Nine, I discuss every

1:11

type of seventh chord and how

1:13

to use it to. Seventh chords

1:15

are made when you extend to

1:18

try it with an additional thirty.

1:20

There are five qualities of seventh

1:22

chords that appear and music. They

1:25

are Major, Seven, Minor Seven. Dominant

1:27

Seven Minor Seven Flat Five also

1:29

known as have Diminished and Diminished

1:31

Said which is also known as

1:33

the fully Diminished Chord. I'm going

1:35

to explain how these courts or

1:37

Bill and which to know your

1:39

guitar songs use them. Going to

1:41

play songs from the Eagles, The

1:43

Doobie Brothers, Garth Brooks and it's

1:45

going to be a great discussion.

1:47

But before we begin, what should

1:49

you specifically be working on right

1:51

now in order to become a

1:53

better guitarist? Go to my website:

1:55

Guitar Music Theory. dot com answer the

1:57

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in your free video course now

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at guitarmusictheory.com. You can click

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on the link in the podcast show notes. All

2:31

right, so let's get on to today's

2:33

topic, every type of seventh chord and

2:35

how to use it. All

2:54

right, so we are ready to dive in. So

2:58

let's do a quick review of how chords

3:00

are built. You build chords

3:02

by taking a scale. I'm playing the C

3:04

major scale here. C

3:09

D E F G A

3:11

V C. And

3:14

you stack every other note.

3:17

You take the first note C and

3:19

then you skip D, you go to E and

3:22

then you skip F, you go to G. So

3:27

that's the first, third, and fifth from the

3:29

scale. And when you play those notes together,

3:31

that makes

3:34

a C major chord. We call that a

3:36

root, third, and fifth. And

3:38

we're stacking this with consecutive thirds. You're

3:40

starting on C and playing up

3:42

three notes. One, two,

3:44

three. And then from that note,

3:46

you go up another three notes in the scale.

3:50

So consecutive thirds there. And

3:53

if you go through the entire scale and

3:56

stack its notes this way, you get the

3:58

sequence of major and minor. That's

4:07

the harmonized scale there. I teach this in

4:09

frontboard theory and guitar theory for dummies if

4:12

you want to learn more about

4:14

that. So those are

4:16

basic triads, major and minor triads. Some

4:18

chords come out major like the first

4:21

one, the

4:23

second one comes out minor. It's

4:26

got a minor third in it. To

4:29

build seventh chords you just stick

4:31

with that consecutive thirds pattern and

4:34

you would go up another third.

4:36

So from C we're

4:43

going to add that note. And

4:45

that's seven scale tones

4:47

away from our tonic pitch

4:49

here. So

4:53

if I take a C major chord which

4:55

is C, E and G and then add

4:57

a seventh which is B, that

5:01

makes C major seven. It's

5:04

got a nice pretty sound

5:07

to it. It sounds soft,

5:09

even jazzy. There's different ways we can arrange these

5:11

notes in the frontboard and stack them. Or

5:21

maybe something like, or

5:26

maybe something like, these

5:30

are all major seventh chords. It's not all a combination of C,

5:32

E, G and B. So

5:35

that's a major seventh chord. Let's go through the rest

5:37

of the scale and see what

5:39

happens with the other chords. If I go to the next chord

5:42

in the key of C, D, which is made

5:44

up of D, F and A and go

5:46

to its seventh,

5:48

I'm sticking in the C major scale

5:50

here. Its

5:58

seventh is a C note. And

6:01

if I add that C note to my

6:03

D minor

6:07

triad here, I get

6:09

D minor 7. And there's different ways,

6:11

so that's D, F, A, C. There's

6:13

different ways that I could arrange this

6:18

while moving the notes around. And in between

6:20

where we hate to do this because we

6:23

can't always stack notes in order. These

6:26

are all D minor 7 chords. This

6:29

D minor not only had a minor third in it,

6:33

but its seventh is also a minor seventh.

6:35

It's a flat seventh. The

6:38

C's seventh is

6:41

a major seventh. It's just one note away

6:44

from the octave. But D's

6:46

seventh is

6:49

two notes away from the

6:52

octave. That's called a seven or a

6:55

minor seventh. And

6:57

so on, let's go through the rest of the scale. The

7:00

next note is E. If

7:02

you build the triad, you get E,

7:05

G, and B. And if you

7:07

add a seventh in there, you

7:10

get a D. And so that also makes a

7:12

D minor 7. There's different ways we

7:14

can do this on the front board. Maybe

7:25

minor seventh. It's got more depth. It's got more

7:27

color to it because we have an additional note.

7:29

It's not just a triad anymore. Sounds

7:32

a little jazzier. Here's just a plain minor.

7:37

And here's the minor seventh. I

7:48

want to hear minor seventh. I think they sound a

7:50

little jazzier. When I hear any type of seventh, I

7:52

mean the C, there's C major,

7:54

and then There's

7:56

C major seventh. That sounds very jazzy, you

7:58

know? My

8:05

Amazon, you have the beginnings of jazz.

8:07

Okay, so we've got the major seven.

8:09

The matter said that he might or

8:11

seven hour on the forecourt ass. It.

8:15

Makes it as major chord and and has

8:17

a major seventh in it's. Did

8:19

you cannot count up to seven

8:22

scale degrees away from ask? you

8:24

get a major seventh so it

8:26

ends up being the same type

8:28

of accord as the see a

8:30

major service. The

8:33

next court and the key is G

8:35

also major and A know what you're

8:38

thinking. All right. Here's here's the third

8:40

major chord in the key Must be

8:42

the third major seventh chord in the

8:45

key. Right? Wrong. I'm if we count

8:47

up seven degrees from g. E

8:52

it has an ass in it. It does

8:54

not have enough sharp. It would need to

8:56

have enough sharp in order be a major

8:59

seven. It actually has a minor seventh in

9:01

that flat seven. So this is an interesting

9:03

core because it's a major trial. Is

9:07

a miner or smoked. Salmon

9:10

and a suspicion. To be seventh

9:12

chord We call it a

9:14

dominant seventh. For. G Dominant

9:17

seventh as get enough that rod. Different

9:26

ways. That. We could arrange these

9:28

notes. On

9:30

the fretboard on the degrees of the major

9:32

scale have names. the five is called

9:34

the dominant and so we're on the fifth

9:37

degree here on T billie accord and adding

9:39

seven so called G Dominant seventh. Arm.

9:42

But the rule and music is yes, I

9:44

poured as a dominant. Sermons you don't have

9:46

to say dominant. Some of the can just

9:48

say seven to concede G seven. Here

9:51

for court is Major Seven Yet

9:53

to specify that suits A C

9:56

Major Seven F Major Seven. g

9:58

seven that's

10:00

how it works out. Let's

10:04

keep going. We're on the sixth degree.

10:06

It's A, builds an A minor chord.

10:08

I count up

10:10

seven degrees. It's got a minor seventh in

10:14

it or

10:16

a flat seventh interval in it. It's

10:18

a G. So I add G to an

10:20

A minor chord. I get

10:23

A minor seven. Cool.

10:32

And then finally we're on the seventh degree

10:34

of the major scale B. And if

10:38

I build a triad here I get B,

10:40

B and F. That's

10:42

a minor third and a flat or

10:44

diminished fifth. It's the only

10:47

chord in the major scale that

10:49

doesn't have a perfect fifth. And

10:54

if I count up seven degrees, I've

11:01

got an A in there so I have a root, minor

11:04

third, flat, that's

11:07

a flat seventh or minor

11:09

seventh. And here's one

11:11

way I can combine those notes. That's B,

11:14

B, A.

11:18

And this is called B

11:21

minor seven flat five. It's

11:23

basically a B minor seven with

11:26

a flat fifth. A

11:29

lot of tension on this chord. But

11:34

that is technically the seventh chord

11:36

in the key. Alright,

11:40

so we've gone through the whole major

11:42

scale and we have added a

11:44

seventh to the basic triads. And

11:47

we got major seventh,

11:49

minor seventh, minor seventh,

11:52

major seventh, dominant seventh,

11:56

minor seventh, minor

11:58

seventh, flat five, and then we're on the seventh. That the

12:00

beginning. Major. Seven.

12:05

Or eight. So there are four

12:07

of the five types of seventh

12:09

chords that occur naturally or diatonic

12:11

li. I'm right out the major

12:14

scale that would be major seven.

12:16

Minor Seven. Dominant

12:19

seventh and minor seven

12:22

flat five. That

12:24

minor seven flat five is also known

12:26

as a half diminished chord. I'll

12:29

get into that here in a

12:31

bit. So now this give you

12:33

some examples of how these are

12:35

you someone a place on to

12:37

some. Excerpts from some

12:39

familiar songs to So You Can.

12:43

Hear what these accord sound like in context

12:45

and I'm gonna start with the song our

12:47

Best of My Love by the Eagles By

12:49

the way I'm going to jump around here

12:52

and plane different keys. So many give examples

12:54

and different keys. I is the key A

12:56

see here to stuff. I explain

12:58

how we build seventh chords but now and

13:01

they give you examples from various keys. Here's

13:03

a little bit of Best of My Love

13:05

by. So

13:30

I'm on Ultimate guitar.com a get

13:32

the paid version and so I

13:34

pull up the tab hear and

13:36

I'm using com listen to the

13:38

backing track that they have available

13:40

for this tablature. Or

13:43

it so we've got in the songs,

13:45

we've got C Major Servants and I'm

13:47

gonna play my to stick here for

13:49

ya. es

13:55

major seven I'm

14:01

in the open position, I've got a

14:03

C chord, I'm adding a seventh in

14:05

there, and

14:07

then just playing the regular triad, so I'm going

14:09

back and forth between B and C in

14:13

the chord. And then in

14:15

the F chord, I also

14:18

go back and forth between

14:20

B and C. In this

14:23

case, it's a

14:25

sharp fourth and a fifth,

14:27

but I've got an E

14:29

on top that

14:32

makes an F major seven. So C

14:35

major seven and F

14:38

major seven sound. And this is part of what gives

14:41

best of my love, it's distinct sounds,

14:43

those sevenths in there. Now

14:56

there's more to the song, but I just want

14:58

to play a portion of it there just to

15:00

introduce you to this use of major seven chords.

15:04

Next, here's a portion of the song

15:06

Plush by Stone Temple Pilots, I'm still

15:08

at ultimateguitar.com using their backing

15:10

tracks. Let

15:38

me play that for you. That

15:51

is an E flat major seven, so I've got an

15:53

E flat triad. This

16:01

song is interesting because it's kind of

16:03

based on this chromatic movement. But

16:13

I love the use of the... I'm

16:15

playing my Paul Reed Smith DGT. It's

16:17

got Seymour Duncan pickups. I'm on the

16:19

bridge pickup. I've got high gain, reverb

16:21

and chorus on here to get this.

16:45

So, once again, that's Plush by

16:47

Stone Temple Pilots. Here's

16:50

another one. Out under the bridge by

16:52

Red Hot Chili Peppers. There

17:19

it is right at the end. Did you hear that? I'm

17:24

in the key of E here playing chords right out

17:26

of the scale. And when I

17:28

come back to the key of E at the end of this verse,

17:30

I don't play a regular major. Here's a

17:32

regular major. And

17:35

here's the major seven. Hear

17:38

that? Major, major seven.

17:45

Nice example of using a major

17:47

seven chord. You know, there's also

17:49

a major seven chord at the end of this song during

17:51

this. I

18:01

don't know what it is. I don't know what it is, but it's a Z. I

18:04

don't know what the other one is. What

18:06

is it? What

18:09

is it? It's a major 7. So,

18:14

it's a major 7, but it's a higher... So...

18:23

The dominant 7, I'll get to that later.

18:27

So a G. All

18:31

right, so those are some examples of using major

18:33

7 chords. Just

18:35

a few examples to introduce you to that

18:37

sound, and maybe you can start to

18:39

associate the sound of a major 7 to these songs.

18:42

Maybe these songs are familiar to you, and that will

18:44

help you recognize the sound of major

18:46

7s when you encounter them in the future. There

18:49

are, of course, many, many, many other songs that use major

18:51

7s. So if you're in my

18:55

Prepper Theory video program, or you have the

18:57

Prepper Theory books, or you have Guitar Theory

18:59

for dummies, I make reference to a lot

19:01

more songs. So you can see any one

19:03

of those resources for more, but I

19:05

want to move on now to minor 7 chords. And

19:10

I'm going to start with Heart

19:12

of Gold by Neil Young. Sounds

19:14

like this. So

19:27

at the beginning there, the

19:29

basic chords are E minor to

19:32

D major. But

19:34

there's actually a D note in that E

19:36

minor chord. I'm

19:40

playing an open E minor, but I'm holding the third

19:42

front of the second string. It's actually E minor

19:44

7. And

19:48

it just adds a little bit more depth, a little

19:50

bit more color. Here's without it. And

19:56

then here's with the seventh. You

20:11

know, it's really common in some acoustic songs

20:14

to hold not only the second string

20:16

at the third fret, but

20:18

also the first string at the

20:20

third fret. And

20:23

that's still just an E minor 7. We've

20:25

got the D in there, that makes it a minor 7. And

20:28

then the added note in the first string is just

20:30

a G. Well, there's already a G in an E

20:32

minor triad, so that doesn't really affect anything. So

20:35

think about Wonderwall by Oasis. That's

20:38

a song that uses this type of E minor 7. Next,

20:55

how about Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin?

20:58

I'm thinking about this particular part. So

21:12

this is an A minor, and

21:16

you lift your finger off the third string. It

21:18

puts a G in there, that's A minor 7. And

21:21

you also hold a G on top, that's

21:24

still just A minor 7. But

21:27

classic example of that A minor sound. It

21:33

sounds like things changed there, but really it's not

21:35

a chord change, you're just changing the chord voicing.

21:37

You've got A minor 7 with a G on

21:39

top, and then A

21:41

minor 7 with an E on top. Both

21:45

notes are part of an A minor 7 chord, so it's

21:48

still A minor 7 either way. My

22:04

next minor 7 example is the song

22:06

Long Trained Run-In by the Doobie Brothers.

22:08

We hear it right out of the

22:10

gate. So

22:29

that's a G minor 7. I'm

22:32

playing a G minor bar chord on the 5th string

22:34

all the way at the 10th fret. I

22:37

take my pinky away. It

22:39

introduces an F note,

22:41

so that makes that G minor 7. In

22:44

this particular song, the notes that

22:47

you're fretting, you're barring with your index finger

22:49

and then the other fingers you hammer on.

23:10

But to me, that's always a classic

23:12

minor 7 example. And

23:15

of course, there are many other songs that use

23:17

minor 7th chords and you'll likely

23:20

come across them as you learn more and

23:22

more songs. Don't forget that I do reference

23:24

more in frontboard theory and guitar theory for

23:26

dummies. But we've got more

23:28

types of 7th chords to cover, including

23:31

dominant 7th chords, minor 7 flat 5

23:33

chords, and diminished 7th chords. So

23:37

next are dominant 7th chords, and

23:39

here's my first example. Like

24:00

the built in many player which is actually

24:03

really helpful to you. can slow it down

24:05

and change the pitch and everything. or you

24:07

can switch over to a backing track. We'll

24:09

hear real instruments that I tried to rip

24:12

off. recreate the tablature. Anyway,

24:14

this is born on the by

24:16

you buy Creedence Clearwater Revival than

24:18

The Key is Eat and you're

24:21

hearing. Classic

24:29

sound of a dominant seventh chord right there

24:31

as any major true. You

24:35

the fluid sermons in it. a

24:37

minor sentiment major to read your

24:39

servant. Who the

24:41

dominant soon as. A

24:44

week into city see he said. I

24:51

always think about that and often times

24:53

and music if I hear someone play

24:55

that chords are set the or pegi

24:57

eight It. Does

24:59

I'm so familiar with the song born in the

25:02

By You are just associated that sound with. And

25:05

he dominant summons and in general

25:07

too soon as I hear like.

25:10

A can usually figure out a food that

25:13

must be. Dominant

25:15

seventh chords have some tension in them. And

25:19

they can be used in two ways. One

25:21

is just what we call a static dominant

25:23

where you just it's clearly your tonic. Pets

25:25

like this is a profit zip of the.

25:39

He does a lot of blues. Isn't. That

25:49

obvious static dominates but then sometimes

25:51

dominance are used for dominant function

25:53

were a dominant core creates tension

25:56

that's kind of pushed to and

25:58

resolve on. The another

26:00

corn. So think about maybe

26:02

something like I'm. Also

26:05

the Rising Sun. Or

26:17

that he or that he

26:19

seven pitches to and resolves

26:21

to. A

26:24

miner. Or

26:26

like to be go back to. The key is see. That

26:32

I poured you. Dominant

26:35

seventh as tension of is pushing

26:38

to and must resolve on see

26:40

has kind of a functioning. Dominant

26:43

cord and on the different ways

26:45

that can be used and are

26:47

we hear that in the song

26:49

Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett. C.

27:25

G. G

27:28

Major. Dominant.

27:35

He made. The

27:39

dominant some it. So

27:43

that g. A

27:47

D. There's

27:52

a D seven and add some

27:54

tension and it's pushing to and

27:56

resolving to that. g. So

28:28

d major if you play a

28:30

d of dominance some and. Was

28:36

to lead into G, so that's another

28:38

with Adama. Seventh chords are use. I

28:41

talk about dominant function throughout my our

28:43

theory books and stuff. It's really important

28:45

part of music. but anyway, You've

28:49

got a dominant seventh that is used in

28:51

the song Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett. And

28:54

you also have a dominant seventh as

28:57

used in the way by fastball. Shirt

29:03

Minor. Minor.

29:14

A new. C shirt tie the

29:16

other. Has

29:19

been. Out

29:21

of his minor. Issue

29:25

of later. On.

29:33

He showed. Some

29:39

as sharp Minor: you gotta,

29:41

it's five Cord he played

29:43

dominant son answered. Who

29:50

have lot more. whole little

29:52

obama little more There's

30:00

also an interesting use of a dominant

30:02

seventh chord in the

30:04

chorus. So let's jump to that

30:07

really quick. I

30:11

think it's right here. A,

30:14

A, B, A,

30:17

B. These

30:28

are chord chord changes. So we started out

30:30

in F sharp minor, now we're in the

30:32

relative major A. We've

30:35

got chord 1, 5, 6,

30:39

as we expected

30:43

to go to 4. And

30:46

before that you play that C

30:48

sharp dominant seventh. Which

30:52

is an interesting twist in turn. It's a

30:54

little surprise chord. And then it goes to

30:57

the four chord D, so it's chord D. So

31:34

there's another use of a dominant

31:36

seventh chord. It's

31:44

interesting that it's played dominant seventh here. It

31:46

adds some tension. And

31:51

I don't know, it's just got a cool sound. Instead

31:54

of playing what would be diatonic there, it would

31:56

be the C sharp minor. They

32:00

don't. They

32:09

play it as major with

32:11

the dominant 7's in there. I

32:27

really like that sound and that's another example of

32:30

using a dominant 7th chord. We're

32:33

going to move on now to a minor 7 flat

32:35

5 chord. So

32:39

if we were in the key of C, this

32:42

is where you're on the 7th degree. You

32:46

get a minor triad with a flat 5th and

32:48

then you put a 7th in there. You

32:54

know, if you're studying one of my theory programs,

32:56

when we talk about harmonizing the scale, I tell

32:58

you that the chord that's built on the 7th

33:01

degree isn't really used, so

33:04

we kind of skip it initially and we focus

33:06

on using chords 1 through 6 because

33:08

they're used all the time to

33:11

play chord progressions in

33:13

popular music. If

33:16

that 7th degree chord is going to

33:18

come up, it's going to have the

33:20

7th in it. So

33:24

it's going to be the minor flat 5 or the 7th.

33:26

We call that minor 7 flat 5. And

33:30

it's usually used in the relative

33:33

minor. So instead of C major,

33:35

I would be an A minor. And

33:40

more specifically, it's used in a

33:42

harmonic minor where

33:46

you raise that 7th degree so that in the

33:48

key of A minor, you

33:50

get an E major chord or an E dominant

33:52

7th on the 5 chord. And

33:56

minor 7 flat 5 would be the 2 chord in

33:58

the key of A minor. So it's used

34:01

to play two five one progressions

34:03

in a harmonic minor key And

34:14

since that's kind of

34:16

beyond Playing

34:18

just regular diatonic chord progressions, you know

34:20

one four five one five six four

34:22

and so on I tell

34:24

you like let's just not worry about that That

34:27

diminished triad and the seventh degree and I

34:30

do cover it later Okay, if you keep

34:32

reading in front board theory or guitar three for dummies

34:34

or the video course or whatever you're in I do

34:36

eventually come around and say okay When

34:39

is that seventh chord used and how and

34:41

how is it used? But initially? If

34:44

this is all new to you and you're just

34:46

learning the harmonized scale and the number system for

34:48

the first time and how to play numbered chord

34:50

progressions don't worry about that seventh Degree

34:53

and chord but we're gonna worry about

34:55

it here today because we are talking

34:57

about Every type of seventh chord and

34:59

how it's used and well the minor

35:01

seven flat five Is

35:04

one type of seventh

35:07

chord and a good

35:09

example of its use would be

35:11

in the song Still got the blues

35:13

by Gary Moore and here's the

35:15

backing track There

35:22

we go Hey

35:41

So our changes here are D minor

35:43

seven And G

35:49

C major seven half

35:51

major seven and

35:53

then here's B

35:56

minor seven flat five E

36:01

major, A minor. This

36:05

is like a circle chord progression. Moving

36:08

in fourths. A to D, E to

36:11

G, G to C,

36:13

C to F, F

36:16

to B. We're staying

36:18

diatonic with the notes here that are

36:20

our roots. B to E,

36:24

E to A. And

36:27

the top of the progression actually starts on the

36:29

D minor. We'll

36:32

put a G in the bass. And

36:35

you get the C major 7. Here's an example of using

36:37

a major 7. And

36:41

an F major 7. Just

36:45

adds more depth and color. And then here's that B minor

36:47

7 with an F. The

36:52

notes of a B minor 7 flat 5 are

36:54

B, D, F, and A. Well

36:58

if you skip the B, you have D,

37:00

F, and A. Well that's a

37:02

D minor triad. So one way

37:04

to think about a B minor 7 flat 5

37:07

is a D minor chord with

37:09

a B in the bass. So

37:12

you might come across it written that way

37:14

at times. You might see D minor slash

37:19

B maybe. But

37:31

that's a great example of using a

37:34

minor 7 flat 5. It's a type of 2,

37:36

5, 1 in the key of A harmonic minor. So 2, 5,

37:38

4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Here's

37:48

another example of using that same chord.

37:50

This is I Will Survive by Gloria

37:53

Gaynor. Similar

37:56

changes here. A

37:59

minor 7. B minor, E

38:02

minor, E, E, set

38:05

up. E minor

38:07

7 flat 5, E 7 plus 4,

38:09

set up. B

38:32

minor, B minor, G,

38:36

C or C major 7. Ooh,

38:39

that sounds nice. F or F major 7. That

38:42

sounds nice. B minor 7 flat 5. Why

38:46

does this work? Because it's a 2, 5, 1 to A minor. B

38:53

minor 7 flat 5 to E 7.

38:56

There's E dominant 7th. But

38:58

initially you play that dominant 7th with a

39:00

sus 4. So that

39:02

third, raise it to a

39:05

fourth. That

39:07

would be E 7 sus 4 and then E 7 A

39:10

minor. That's

39:28

I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor. I'm

39:36

going to give you one more example of using

39:39

the minor 7 flat 5 chord. Coincidentally, this next song is also on the

39:41

same key, so it's using B minor 7 flat 5. And

39:44

this is Smooth by Santana. Here is the verse. Here

39:48

is the verse. Alright,

40:00

did you catch it? Well first of all, the main changes here are A minor. I still have

40:16

my chorus on. I still have the blues for

40:18

you. Let's go with it. Why

40:20

not? A minor, F,

40:26

E, C, D. There's

40:30

the born of the value chord. And

40:40

then especially the keys that

40:43

are doing the next changes.

40:45

The next changes are... I'm

40:55

having

41:01

a little trouble grabbing those, but that's D minor

41:03

7, D minor

41:05

7 slash C, B minor

41:09

7 flat 5, and

41:13

E major chord and inversion of it.

41:15

So E slash G sharp. So

41:20

B minor 7 flat 5 to a version of

41:26

E major. So that's harmonic minor

41:36

2 5 1 into A

41:39

minor. And that happens in the song Smooth

41:42

by Santana. Let

41:44

me play it again from the verse here and

41:47

just listen to the keys. And let's

41:49

see if you can hear that minor

41:51

7 flat 5. I'm going to solo

41:54

this. Let's see if I can listen to just the keys. A

42:16

lot of tension there. It's

42:19

a half-diminished chord. We're going to get into that

42:21

so you understand what that means. But

42:24

before you can understand half-diminished, you have

42:26

to understand fully

42:28

diminished. So the

42:31

next type of seventh chord that we're going

42:33

to talk about is called a

42:35

diminished seventh chord. So we've already talked

42:38

about four different types of seventh

42:40

chords. The major seven, the minor

42:42

seven, the dominant seventh, and then

42:45

that minor seventh flat five. Those

42:47

all naturally occur in the major scale. When

42:49

you harmonize the scale and stack its

42:52

notes to form chords and add sevenths to each

42:56

degree of the scale, as you build the chords, you

42:59

get those four types of

43:01

seventh chords. But there's another

43:03

type called the diminished seventh.

43:05

And this is not something

43:07

that naturally occurs in

43:09

a scale. But let's go

43:12

back to the key of C here. And

43:17

remember that the seventh degree was

43:20

B, D, F. That's

43:22

a diminished triad because

43:24

you have a minor third and a

43:26

diminished fifth. We

43:29

could add A. That would be our seventh.

43:31

If we flatten that A, now

43:35

we have a double flat seventh. Now

43:37

we have B, D, F,

43:42

and we would call that A flat. Now,

43:47

you might be thinking that's

43:50

also the distance from

43:52

B to A flat

43:55

is a sixth. So why don't we call that

43:58

a sixth? Because when we... build seventh chords

44:00

we have to follow the formula which is 1 3 5 7 so 1 3 5 7 1 3

44:02

5 that's

44:11

a flat 7 by the way 1 3 5

44:14

flat 7 we still want to call it a seventh A

44:18

flat is not in the C major scale so

44:20

this isn't diatonic this isn't naturally built from the

44:22

scale and

44:25

this is a diminished seventh chord

44:27

and this is actually what musicians

44:29

mean when typically when they say

44:31

diminished they're talking about a diminished

44:33

seventh chord which is also known

44:35

as a fully diminished chord it's

44:37

called diminished because it's it's based

44:40

all on minor third intervals

44:42

B to D is a

44:44

minor third D to F is

44:47

a minor third F to A flat is

44:50

a minor third and I can keep going then A

44:52

flat to B minor third and

44:54

go up a minor third I go up a minor third

44:56

I go up a minor third I go up a minor

44:58

third it's all minor

45:01

thirds and here's one way

45:03

that we could combine these notes to make a

45:05

chord shape so

45:10

this would be B diminished

45:13

seventh or B fully diminished although

45:15

it's not uncommon for musicians just

45:17

to say B diminished and

45:21

what's interesting about the diminished chord is

45:23

because all of its notes are a

45:25

minor third apart three

45:27

half steps when you learn

45:30

a diminished chord fingering you can play inversions by

45:32

just going up three frets just

45:35

take the same fingering up three frets there's

45:49

a lot of tension on this chord you'd

45:52

never have a song that was

45:54

rooted on a chord like this

45:57

you're not going to start singing a

45:59

song like that Diminished chords are

46:01

used as like connector chords. They're not used

46:03

on the seventh scale degree, so you don't

46:05

want to think of it as some form

46:07

of the chord that's built off of the

46:10

seventh degree. It's not. When

46:12

you're playing progressions, you don't play diminished chord

46:14

on the seventh degree. That's not how it,

46:16

this type, that's not how it works. They

46:20

are usually used as chromatic

46:22

half-step chords. And a

46:24

great example of this, as

46:26

I just knocked my mic, a great example

46:28

of this is Friends in Low Places by

46:33

Garth Brooks. Here's a little bit of the

46:35

backing track on ultimate guitar.

46:48

There it is right there. So

46:54

this is in the key of A. I'm

46:56

actually, I got a capo at the second fret and

46:59

I'm capo'd up here, but check out these chord changes.

47:01

We've got A, excuse me. And

47:05

I'm gonna go up a half-step and do the diminished

47:07

thing. Then

47:10

I go to the two chord, B minor

47:13

seven, and

47:16

the five chord E. Let

47:19

me do that again. So

47:28

in this case, I've got an A sharp

47:30

diminished. I'm

47:33

putting a diminished right in between the one chord

47:36

and the two chord. This

47:44

is like basically going one, sharp one,

47:46

two, five, major

47:53

or dominant seventh, whatever. Feel

47:57

it. Feel it. Feel it! if

48:00

I put 7ths in it. But

48:12

that's a great example of using a

48:14

fully diminished chord diminished 7th. It's

48:17

a little half step connector chord.

48:28

And Friends in Little Places by Garth Brooks is a

48:30

great example of that. Another

48:32

good example is Shower

48:36

the People by James Taylor. I'm going

48:38

to start this backing track in the

48:40

chorus and see if you can spot

48:42

that diminished chord, listen for that half

48:44

step movement. Did

48:51

you catch it there? Did

48:55

you catch it

48:59

there? I'm

49:06

going to come around again. A

49:10

little half step movement.

49:14

Connect chord. And

49:17

here. Lots

49:27

of interesting things going on in this song

49:29

but it's a good example of that diminished

49:33

half step movement. And

49:36

here's another. This is Dance with Me by

49:38

Orleans. Lots

49:44

of really cool guitar in this song.

49:49

And this is over here. I'm a fan.

49:57

Let's jump to the chorus. Oh,

50:19

did you hear it there? Alright,

50:32

let me

50:34

grab my

50:37

acoustic. Really

50:44

cool song. It's in the key of D. So

51:20

I'm in the key of D. I

51:23

go to the four chord G and

51:30

then A7, A

51:34

sharp diminished

51:37

seventh, fully diminished, into B minor. So

51:42

I'm in the key of D. I'm connecting the five chord to

51:45

the six chord with a

51:47

diminished. It's

51:52

really common to do that. I'm

52:07

going to go back. All

52:10

right, well that covers all five

52:12

types of seventh chords, but I do

52:14

want to talk about a few more

52:16

examples just to clarify

52:20

some confusion that

52:25

you might have. Because you'll

52:27

hear that half-step movement and those little connector

52:29

chords and you think, oh that must be

52:31

a diminished chord. But sometimes it's

52:33

not a diminished chord. It could be an

52:36

inversion of a major

52:38

chord or a dominant seventh chord. So you

52:40

just want to look out for that. And as a musician you

52:42

kind of get used to it. And sometimes

52:44

the chords are interchangeable. When that happens, well you

52:46

could have put a fully diminished chord in there

52:48

and it would kind of function the same way

52:50

anyway. But a

52:52

good example of this is the song, Please Don't Come

52:55

Home for Christmas. I'm thinking about the Eagles version of

52:57

it. And if you go to my website, I chart

52:59

this out for you and I've got a little video tutorial

53:02

on it. It's free. Just search

53:04

for it on my website. I had a video

53:06

on Facebook, but Facebook banned it. But it's still

53:08

on... I'm sorry, I had a

53:10

video on YouTube. YouTube banned it. It's still on

53:12

Facebook. You can go to Facebook

53:14

and search Desi Cerna, Please Come Home for Christmas or

53:16

find it. Or I just have the video embedded on

53:19

my website. So let's listen to these changes. Right there.

53:34

Oh, you might think

53:36

that... Greetings guitar engineers. I'm Desi Cerna.

53:39

Hello Desi Cerna. So

53:43

let's talk about what's happening there with

53:46

those changes. This is in the key of A. I'm

53:50

going to pull up my chart here. I've got

53:53

a chart for this. Let's

53:57

open Image in New Tab. and

54:00

then click on it and make it all big and nice.

54:06

So we're in the key of A. We've

54:08

got A major 7. Oh,

54:10

there's an A major 7. A dominant 7. Pushes

54:15

2 and leads to D. And

54:20

then here's where I thought it was a diminished.

54:24

It could be, but it's actually a

54:26

B7. The 2

54:28

chord B7 with

54:30

its 3rd D sharp in the bass. Okay,

54:34

well, it's really similar, isn't it?

54:43

It's basically,

54:45

it's almost there. It's

54:47

got the root, the

54:49

minor 3rd, the diminished

54:51

5th, but

54:54

it doesn't have the double b7.

54:59

And then some more notes up there.

55:05

But it's kind of functioning the same way, so. Let

55:13

me go back to the beginning. And

55:24

then we'll go back to the beginning. Good

55:44

example of using dominant 7ths and major 7ths in this

55:46

song, so you can look it up after you complete

55:48

this podcast. But anyway, something

55:50

to look out for here. If I put a

55:52

fully diminished chord in there, it actually would fit

55:55

and sound just fine. and

56:04

so on. But technically it's an inversion and

56:06

sometimes we'll have that happen where it's just

56:09

an inversion of the two chord, played

56:11

as a secondary dominant major and put

56:14

its third in the bass. So

56:16

it could be, might

56:21

be leading to five or maybe

56:24

to the fifth of the one chord. So

56:29

you want to watch out for that type of

56:31

movement. Now what's interesting about this inversion of a

56:33

B dominant seventh is

56:35

when I play it coincidentally

56:39

it's the same fingering

56:43

as the diminished

56:46

triad that's on the seventh degree. If I go

56:48

back to the key of C where I started

56:50

you and I go to B and play

56:54

a combination of the notes B, D and

56:56

F I get

56:58

this particular fingering

57:00

that I told you wasn't really used.

57:02

Well here it's being used if I just slide

57:04

it up to D sharp. But

57:09

it would be incorrect to think about this as

57:12

being the chord that is built off of the

57:14

seventh degree of the scale. It's not. It's

57:17

actually an inversion of the

57:20

dominant two chord and

57:24

you're putting that third in the bass for

57:27

this chromatic

57:29

movement here. D

57:35

to D sharp to E which is

57:37

the fifth of the A chord.

57:44

So again it would

57:46

be incorrect even though coincidentally we

57:48

have the same fingering that makes

57:50

that diminished triad chord. It

57:53

would be incorrect to think of this as an

57:55

example of using that chord because

57:58

we're not on the seventh degree We're

58:00

actually doing something different. It's functioning differently and

58:03

it just coincidentally happens to be the same

58:05

fingering. So you want to look out for

58:07

that. And I'll

58:09

give you one more example. Here's the

58:11

song, Don't Look Back in Anger by

58:14

Oasis. Also appears to maybe

58:16

have a diminished chord. There's a little half step

58:18

movement in there but it's not

58:20

quite that or not necessarily that.

58:33

Alright, so here's the free chorus. We

58:37

haven't had it yet. Minor

58:46

4 chords. 400,

58:50

4, 1.

58:56

Minor 4 chords. 400,

59:01

4, 1.

59:05

Okay, this is the part

59:09

right here. So

59:18

this music is in the KSC and

59:21

at that point it goes to the 5 chord G

59:23

and it's going to go

59:25

up to the 6 chord A minor but

59:27

it connects up with that half step. G,

59:31

G sharp into

59:34

A minor and it sounds like a

59:36

diminished chord. You could put

59:38

one in there. But

59:44

I've looked at some different music and they

59:46

have it tabbed as actually an E chord

59:49

with a first inversion of an E major chord. That

59:51

would be E slash G sharp. So listen to

59:56

this. G, G sharp. E-G-sharp

1:00:03

is A minor. Yeah,

1:00:09

it could be either way. And

1:00:11

so the notes are with

1:00:14

this E-G-sharp and then a diminished.

1:00:17

I mean there's some relationship there.

1:00:20

They're similar. You could use

1:00:22

either one. It kind of

1:00:24

functions similarly. But

1:00:27

this is another example where sometimes you're

1:00:29

going to hear that half-step chromatic movement

1:00:31

and maybe it's not a diminished seventh

1:00:33

chord. Maybe it's an inversion of

1:00:36

a major chord or a dominant seventh chord. This

1:00:38

makes sense here. We're

1:00:40

going from G to A minor. Well

1:00:44

think about harmonic minor. What leads to A

1:00:46

minor and harmonic minor? E major. All

1:00:48

right. All

1:00:51

right. So why not go G and instead

1:00:54

of straight into A minor? Let's

1:00:57

go to that E first and have that dominant push.

1:01:09

Okay. And then we can,

1:01:12

when we go to that E major,

1:01:14

let's put its third G-sharp in

1:01:17

the bass. Now our bass notes

1:01:19

go from G to G-sharp

1:01:21

to A. We've got that

1:01:23

half-step climbing movement there. There's

1:01:34

different ways you could play that E-sharp. I'm

1:01:37

actually just fingering part of an open E-chord here

1:01:40

and reaching with my pinky for that

1:01:43

G-sharp. I could do it other ways. Okay.

1:01:49

So that's it. Thank you. I'm

1:02:04

not exactly sure what happens how it was actually

1:02:06

played in the song. I looked at a couple

1:02:08

different tabbed versions of this and they were a

1:02:10

little bit different but I'm

1:02:12

not sure that it really matters. What matters

1:02:14

is that you play something that sounds similar

1:02:17

to what's happening in the music

1:02:19

and what's happening in the music is

1:02:21

you do have some half-step chromatic movement

1:02:23

here. Sounds like a diminished chord but

1:02:25

in this case it's actually an inversion

1:02:27

of the major chord. All

1:02:42

right, podcast 159 is

1:02:44

a wrap. If you have topics

1:02:46

you want to suggest for future podcast

1:02:49

episodes just go to my website guitar

1:02:51

music theory dot com, scroll down and

1:02:53

click on the contact link and

1:02:57

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1:02:59

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1:03:01

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1:03:08

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1:03:25

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1:03:30

You can click on the link in the podcast

1:03:32

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1:03:35

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1:03:37

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1:03:47

Guitar Engineers, thanks for listening. I'm Desi

1:03:49

Cerna. Before You go, be sure to

1:03:51

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