5 Easy Ways to Use and Write with Diminished Chords [MUSIC THEORY - CHORD PROGRESSIONS]

This video is about diminished chords and where you can use them and fit them into your chord progressions.

IMPORTANT! READ! Diminished chords come in two main flavors- diminshed seventh (aka full diminished) and half diminished (aka m7b5). In this video I exclusively use FULL diminished chords, but nearly every example can be used with a half diminished as well, to varying degrees of success.

It is also important to note that I am a big fan of "learning backwards". That is, do the stuff first- make the noise, use the chord, solo with the scale, regardless if it makes sense to you or not. Then later on you are more likely to learn the inner workings and theory because you actually recognize it's useful application.

This strategy doesn't work for things like heart surgery - for that you should probably learn the details first before doing hands-on experience. But with music, I'm totally okay with skipping many steps along the way as long as they get us to playing and writing quicker.

The following videos are referenced and very important to understanding everything here:

A very big thank you to the following Patrons!!!:
Linas Orentas
Marek Pawlowski
John Arnold
Christopher Swanson
Marc Bulandr
Bradley Bower
Alvaro Begue-Aguado
Don Watters
Don Dachenhousen III
Patrick Ryan

Free online guitar lessons for beginners, intermediate, and advanced players. Located in Crystal Lake, Jake Lizzio provides free jam tracks and video lessons for guitar players, as well as music theory videos and other music education content.

Table of Contents:
00:00 Intro
00:51 Between Whole Steps
03:17 Two Chord Jams
04:45 ii° - V - I
06:18 Pivot to New Keys
07:17 Making the Tonic Diminished
08:04 Wrapping Up

[jrocks]

I’ll say it again you’re a funking treasure

[craigcotter]

That spanish guitar playing was really quite splendid.

[kemakol]

Watch a minute and a half, play around for thirty
Watch a minute and a half, play around for thirty


Your videos are always hours long! And I love that.

[joeybowie]

Thanks for everything you do for us Jake, watch your videos almost every day and always suggest your channel to people getting into music theory.

[DagothThorus]

I'm a drummer an I have no idea what I'm doing here, but heck, I can't stop D:

[sharloable]

Please do not stop posting. I am ready to support you financially.

[oenwilson]

This made me realize how important a diminished chord is. I always ignored this back then and now I'd love to use it now.

[jem]

Teaching is your gift! Love the way you break things down and the audio/visuals help so much! Thank You!

[simondavies]

Fantastic lesson again Mr Lizzio. This channel is rapidly becoming an automatic encylopedic choice for me when I want to learn anything concerning music theory.

[mattb]

I am a piano player and I find all your videos extremely useful, don't stop!

[monkeybusiness]

Holy Moses, man. That short Salsa-Interlude was sweet as hell!

[Djeraldancheta]

Basically, it's there to build insane tensions and also to transition.

[willieboy]

you can definitly teach...you give credit ....and you dont embellish a thing! you speak well you know where everything is that you teach and how to use it, as well you encourage exploration!
bravo....

[mrbaz]

You give off this really cool vibe like Paul Gilbert does in his lesson videos. Love your work man.

[isaach]

Diminished and suspended chords are my favorite for learning tension and release. I also really like the Barry Harris 6th diminished scale concept. Works really well to help understand the theory behind the tension and release of diminished 7th chords.

[zzzut]

What a brilliant introduction to diminished chords! I've been playing the Hammond B3 for a few decades now and although I routinely play diminished chords whenever they're written in a sheet music, I've never been tempted to use them when improvising or playing by ear. I most definitely will from now on. Thank you for this video. I just subscribed.

[robbybisi]

Jake, I have no words to thank you enough for your videos and explanations. It makes me so happy when something “clicks” for me and finally I can understand it. What you’re giving to the musician worldwide society is immense. You look very young, but it’s amazing how knowledgeable you are. Thank you!

[abrahamofei]

Man, you are too much. I have been playing the diminished chords for decades now but for the first l am beginning understanding them. For a music enthusiast like me, this is heart-warming. More grease to your elbows.

[Yokai.Wakukhan]

All the little details makes this a masterful expression

[kmisi]

dude, you always make me want to write more songs!