Using Diminished Chords
As a reminder, a diminished chord is the 3rd and the 5th flattened. So the D dmin would be D, F and Ab.
Now if we add the seventh it would become Half dimished, D, F, Ab and C
If we look at the chords again for a particular scale e.g. C major we can see that B is the dimished chord. However if you try utilizing B dim in a chord progression for the scale of C, you may not hear anything with a soulful feel to it.
| 1 | C major |
| 2 | D minor |
| 3 | E minor |
| 4 | F major |
| 5 | G7 or dominant |
| 6 | A minor |
| 7 | B diminished |
We can borrow a chord and use the diminshed chord somewhere else. A good one to use is to use the same root twice. Instead of 2-5-1 we can do 2-2-1.
The frist (2) is D minor7 – D, F, A, C
The second (2) is D diminished (or half diminshed for this example) D, F, Ab, C – simply flatten the 5th (A – Ab)
Finally resolve back to C maj7 – C, E, G, B
The reason this sounds more soulful is because it has more dissonance. The flattened A makes all that difference.
Diminished 7th
It is important not to get confused with the diminished 7th and the half dimished (often called half diminished 7th).
The diminished chord has the 3rd and 5th flattened. The half diminshed or half diminshed 7th also has the 7th flattened. You can also think of it as a minor 7th chord with a flatted 5th.
The diminshed 7th on the other hand has the 3rd and 5th flattened but the 7th is flattened twice as per below. Think of it as a minor 7th chord flattening the 5th and flattening the 7th again!
Lets try the 2-2-1 progression again. This time using Dmin7, Ddim7 and Cmaj7. Notice even more dissonance with this progression.