Wow. this is some top notch University / Conservatory training. People pay literally thousands of dollars in tuition for this 15 minute video of information at Julliard. To those watching, like myself, study this material thoroughly!!! We thank you, sir. And now to woodshed.
Ah Joe, what a generous comment. Thank you, I really appreciate your kind words and even more pleased that you’re finding value in my little videos. Thanks for being here and sharing the love.
This was more than a class, it truly was a masterclass. Please consider all possibilities to continue with these masterclasses because it was amazing! You are great and thanks for sharing this with us.
Ok this sure made a massive change to enhance pretty much all the pieces I play. Kind of going back to my first piano lesson. You gave me enough to think and experiment with to last me for the rest of my life. I’m 78 and went back to the ivories 2 yrs ago after over 55 yrs. Thank you so much. Hats of to you. Plan to watch all your videos over time🫶🫶👍👍🙏
I don't often comment on music theory vids, but this video is briliant, especially the point on how diminished chords are very closely related to dominant 7th chords!
You’ve condensed the better part of two semesters of music school into a handful of extremely useful videos. Had this channel existed 23 years ago, I could’ve saved thousands of dollars and many late nights. Brilliant resource, and excellent academic refresher.
Ah, thanks for the kind comment. I’m glad you enjoyed. I sometimes wonder how my life may have been different if RU-vid had been available like this 20 or 30 years ago!
Please keep making these videos Michael! I'm loving your content and am learning so much every time. I'm excited to finally start wrapping my head around these elusive and mysterious chords
As an “ear trained” musician with an affinity towards the Diminished, this video has explained in the clearest terms, what I knew I was hearing and so from this awareness, I can craft the songs I naturally hear. Bravo 🙌🏿🙏🏿💯
RU-vid land really is what you make of it. Some like cute kitty clips, conspiracy theories and cranks. I have a soft spot for clear, concise content. Superb upload, good sir. Lots to play with. I’m going to merge this with triad inversions to attempt to make my progressions silky smooth. Thank you.
Cheers Mike! Glad you enjoyed it and found it useful. I’ve just been planning my next video, it’s all about conspiracy theories on cute kittens. 😜😂 Thanks for the comment. 🙏
Michael, this has got to be one of the well explained pieces of music theory I have come across. Your explanation of what can be done with diminished chords has blown me away. I have always struggled with the idea of using diminished chords, you have opened up a new world for me to be able to express myself. I thank so very much you truly are a fantastic teacher I will be looking and learning from all your videos. Fantastic work. Thank you.
Ah Terry! Such a kind comment. I really appreciate you taking the time to watch and be so generous with your comment. When I started posting this sort of content a few months ago I hoped that maybe some people might find a little bit of value in the content and I’ve been blown away by comments like yours and only hope I can continue to provide value and hopefully grow into a little community. Thanks again 🙏🎹🎵
Why does everyone Credit Jacob with the This Barry Harris Technique? Barry Harris Been teaching this for a while… Tho Jacob is a Phenomenal Musician. it’s Barry Harris
I doubt Barry Harris was the first person to connect diminished chords with dominant seven chords. The reason I mentioned Jacob Collier was because, like I said, he’s the person I recently heard talking about it and also, I don’t think anyone’s giving or taking credit for it.
The writing is where the magic is. Videos like this are really helpful in showing how we can add a little something to make our compositions a little bit more special. Thanks.
Thank you for explaining this in a way that I finally understood after fearing the circle sign for years :D You are the best, wishing you millions of subs
Thanks Mark! Glad you're enjoying the content and great to know I'm connecting with people in New Zealand! 👋 Thanks for the comment, I appreciate the support 🙏
Michael thank you so much for Raytheon time to explain this to us. This material is incredibly useful. Your approach is clear and straightforward, especially for such a complex topic. Please keep the music theory lessons coming! Arthur Washington state, USA
Another small point to make in regards to your first point is that the 3 diminished chords have no repeating notes. And since each dim chord has 4 notes, this means you are playing all 12 tones of western music with just those 3 chords. So if we call them C, C# and D, you can play all twelve notes of the piano in those 3 dim chords with no repeats. This also helps to understand why there are only 3 dim chords.
This is an excellent resource for study of the diminished chord and the altered scale. I am a guitarist of many years and have been fascinated by the sound and versatility of the diminished scale since way back when I first listened to Django Reinhardt. The concept of lowering any note in a diminished chord to create a dominant 7th is a topic has been covered in great depth by the late great Pat Martino. The idea of the chord being used as a pivot chord and your presentation and explanation with the graphics is as good and probably better than anything I've ever seen on the subject. Also I must add that I came across your work just a few days ago and have thoroughly enjoyed your presentation of the subject matter. I don't usually subscribe to channels, however I feel compelled to do so to yours. Thank you.
Thanks for your comment Enzo! A fellow diminished lover! Really nice to hear you're enjoying the content, thanks for watching and leaving a comment, and the sub much appreciated! 🙏
ok , I understand that (Diminished Scales and chords) clearly thks. but the two Whole Tone scales. How do they fit into this theory because I can use one of the two W T scales with in any sharped five chord. or Can I use W Ts and Diminished scales interchangeably ?
What a great video! Thank you. The way you think and express fits well with how I learn. Thanks again. You have really helped me with my reemergence into my piano playing. You are now my teacher. Thanks again!
Thanks..Enjoyed this video. I would also enjoy hearing an exposition of the whole-tone scale, which is one of my favorites to experiment with, especially in a 3/x or 6/x rhythm (or using triplets in 4/4). Can create quite an other-worldly sound, which at one time or another everyone has heard in a Mystery or Suspense movie scene..
That dimished thing with the dropping any note to make it a dominant is from Barry Harris' method. He has a really interesting concept of jazz harmony based on these "families of chords."
Don’t all of four of these reasons actually mean that whole tone clusters are superior, if only because there’s less of them 🤓. Why play a diminished chord when you can dom7 #11 b13 your way to victory am I right whose with me?
Cheers Dan! I've just spent some time watching your content - SO GOOD. Nice work man. Was hearing a bit of Jackson Browne and Foy Vance in there. You've got a new fan. Keep it up man. 👍
If you take a diminished chord and raise one note by a semitone it becomes the fifth of a m6 chord. Minor 6th is my new favourite chord. Because it contains a tritone between the third and the sixth you can do all the same tritone substitution tricks as you can with a dominant.
Hi, thanks for the comment. There is a seventh in a full diminished chord and it's a double flattened seventh - so for Bdim7 = B(Root), D(b3), F(b5) and Ab(bb7). A half diminished chord just has a b7. Bm7b5 = B(root), D(b3), F(b5) and A(b7). Hope that helps. Thanks for watching! 👍
I believe it was Bruckner who described the Diminished 7th chord as "the musical Orient Express" because it can quickly take you to far away places. I share all your reasons for loving a good °7 chord.😊
I been studying my music theory and I subbed to you right after watching a few of your videos which just leveled up my understanding by tieing up loose ends. I'm still tryna understand better the modes of the melodic minor. Great videos, huge paradigm shifts of comprehensive musicality 🎉❤
Really appreciate this thank you. I understand it !! Some years after learning these beasts. The applications are wonderful and I like the way you describe the function of the dim in each case - all the other chords we think about function - these fills some significant gaps (for me at least).
Hi Alber, thanks for your comment. I don't really think we have specific diminished chords that relate the specific scales. It's much more about diminished chords that are suitable for a specific movement between two chords. One typical example would be to use a diminished chord from a semitone below whichever chord you're approaching, so maybe you want to move from C to Am7, you could add in a Abdim7 chord before the Am: C - Abdim - Am7. But remember that any diminished chord is also three other diminished chords if you change the bass note so in this example you could also play: C - Fdim7 - Am7 ...or C - Bdim7 - Am7 ...or C - Ddim7 - Am7 and each have a very similar and effective sound. Hope that helps!
I really love your approach! I always try to take the same approach. When I watch your videos, I finally get the feeling that I'm not the only one who wants (so-called intellectual) music to be accessible to everyone. Well done for this simple but not simplistic content.
@@corentinmusique Ah thanks man. That means a lot. I posted my first video like these, about modes, because I felt I had something to say that people weren’t really talking about and the response inspired me to keep posting but I’m not sure my following videos have said anything that hundreds of other RU-vidrs haven’t already said but maybe it’s the approach I’m taking that seems to be landing well, even if I’m not saying anything new! Thanks for your comment mate. 👍🏼
In terms of music education content on Toutube, I mainly watch the videos of Music Matter and Ryan Leach. Their videos and approaches are very different, one is very academic, the other is more practical but both, like you, are very educational. But I've never had the effect that I have with your videos. "Move a note in a diminished chord and you have another chord". - .... how did I not think of this on my own before! 🤣 Anyway, it seems that even though you make the same videos on the same subjects as other RU-vidrs, you obviously always have something different to contribute. Maybe it's because your approach to music is closer to my own sensibilities, but there's something in each of your videos that makes me think: my brain has just exploded! For the record, I'm a composer in retraining after 18 years in the restaurant business! I live in Paris, France Corentin
@@corentinmusique Thanks again Corentin for your encouragement. Connecting with people like yourself really do motivate me to keep posting. A new video on Secondary Dominants is just about finished, will be posting on Thursday evening, hopefully you'll feel the same about that video too! I've spent the last 15 years working in the video production industry and have tried to keep playing but I'm at a similar stage where I'm hoping to go back into full time music. Best of luck with your music journey. Don't be a stranger. MK
I can't really add anything to the other wonderful comments here, because everything has been said. This is one of my favorite topics in music theory. Thank you for this thorough breakdown! And thank you (and all the other awesome teachers on RU-vid) for sharing your knowledge. I am amazed at how much my knowledge of music theory has grown over the past year because of teachers such as yourself.
Hello from Canada! I’m a jazz guitarist and enjoy your presentation. I find the altered voicings on guitar are more completely revealed in piano examples. Keep up the good work. I’ve subscribed to your channel and am looking forward to more videos. Thanks Michael.
Thanks Tim! Yes, the piano is a wonderfully visual instrument and its layout does make learning a lot of theory a little easier! Glad you're enjoying the content, thanks for the sub 🙏
Im asked this for an audition : scales will be followed by either an arpeggio, a Dominant 7th arpeggio built on the 5th degree of the scale, or a Diminished 7th arpeggio built on the 7th degree of the scale, and will resolve to the tonic. I know when to use the Dominant 5th degree chord but when should the diminished 7th be used on harmony? Thanks.
I'm not sure I fully understand the context of the question but a diminished 7 chord/arpeggio on the 7th degree is a common application on dominant 7 chords as it spells out a 7b9 chord. For example, the chord is a G7, the seventh degree of G is F and you played a F diminished 7 over the G you'd have F(7th), Ab(b9), B(3rd) and D(5th). Hope that helps. 👍
I always feel like I want to stop watching when someone starts talking about "the scale of a chord", because that doesn't make any sense. It is unfortunate that this idea was popularized in jazz as an educational tool and technique for improvisation.
Thanks for your comment. I’m not sure where I said “the scale of a chord” but does it make sense to you that a chord comes from or exists in a scale? My understanding is that all chords are built from scales. So if you want to improvise over a chord or ornament a chord with other notes, how do you know what notes to add? With a dim 7 chord, I know those four notes don’t exist together in the major scale so they must come from somewhere else, so in my head the ‘scales of this chord’ would be the two diminished scales and the harmonic minor as they’re scales which include those sets of intervals. Does that make sense? Why do you think the chord scale idea is unfortunate? For anyone starting to think about improvising, it’s a very accessible device to employ.
@@michaelkeithson The chords of a scale (= given a scale, construct chords on it) is ok. But in jazz it most of the time means something different: given a chord, what is the scale that you should play on it (= it is sufficient to see a chord symbol, to know what to do when improvising). This view is called vertical playing, claiming that for every chord there is one unique scale that fits best over it. Take a Dmin7. If they ask me: "What will you play over it?" I will answer: "Without a context I don't know". Most teachers will expect D dorian as the correct answer. They are wrong. The (unique) scale of a chord makes no sense. This is a vast subject, much more can be said about it.
@@mer1red Thanks for your response, I enjoy these kinds of dialogue. Yeah, it is a complex subject but what you described isn’t my experience of jazz and vertical playing. Vertical playing to me gives you options of what you ‘could’ play rather than ‘should’ play. Although however, I do agree, kind of, that within certain idioms/styles of jazz there is certain expected vocabulary to fit within that style. Just as in the same way if you were playing bluegrass, rock, blues, etc. there are certain things to adhere to if you want to play in that style. Jazz is very broad and improvisation in jazz means different things depending on what type of jazz you’re playing. Oh and Merry Christmas! 🎅🏻
@@michaelkeithson I agree that there is no absolute law in music, carved in stone. Everybody is free to make the sounds they like. I used the word wrong because if you teach that to students, they spend years without still being able improvise properly. And because ultimately many, including myself, take another road. E.g. Miles Davis.
Precisely how I view the Dom7th/Dim 7 connection. Just flat one note at a time in any of the 3 Diminished chords to slip into a Dom 7th chord. Well done. Well clarified. The Dim chords are essential "pivot" chords to 4 different keys which can all be seen clearly on the Circle of 5ths as per their resolve. You simply must be able to perceive the theoretically correct movements to achieve the potential musical directions you can go in. Once you see the altered chordal movements, you can modulate and pivot to many new sounding keys and chord progressions.It's not rocket science. It is musical science.
