How to REALLY play diminished chords 

Most rock guitarists think that 'diminished scale' means a pay cut. Dad jokes aside, great lesson!

Nice n clear good video thanks

I've repeated this several times over the last few weeks and am finally getting the idea of "treating dims like dominants a half step down". So, 1#dim in C sounds like a mix of C7 and A7 (if you like to add the C#). Thx. I learned something.

Nice work their.

Excellent explanation, just what I needed! Also appreciate your neet English, all so nicely pronounced and utterly clear.

I just spent 2 hrs working through this, which is rare for me with any youtube lesson. Your simple approach to integrating Barry Harris ideas is inspiring, and I’ve already discovered that one of the shreddy licks I learned note for note from Charlie Parker’s Billie’s Bounce now makes better sense to me - it seems to apply much the same simple diminished idea over a ii V. So much mileage to be had from I have learned in this lesson!

Feel free to make a video on how Harris turns that note to a ii V. I can get there but simply by the sound and no BH theory.

In C major for bIII dim7 try G major bebop scale, but in reverse. Then you hit all the dim chord tones on downbeats. Try F major bebop (reverse) for #I dim7 and C major bebop (reverse) for II dim7.

Thanks for this. Can't wait to put it into practice. Makes a nice addition to my limited and rather clichéd diminished vocab!

The simple applications of this provide an insightful way to spruce up turnarounds - especially in bebop without needing a Coltrane like life experience - the short simple pragmatics deliver here. Many thanks.

I love Barry Harris and I have collected everything on You Tube. So I buy the book by Alan Kingstone's 'The Barry Harris Harmonic Method for Guitar', The Dim grip of Shape has a lot of posibillitis, one note below for dominants. Semitone raised the minor chord etc. etc. Yes, the chomatic scale is God. The two Whole tone Scales are Man and Woman and then 3 Children, the 3 diminished chords. and the 12 notes are the disciples. This is a perfect story for The Passion. Sorry for my bad English. My age is 90 years. Thanks for you clear video.

I also searched for a long time to find out my favourite note choices / scales over diminished chords and altered dominants and dominants in minor ii V progressions. The textbooks all recommend WTHT for diminished chord, altered scale for altered dominants and I was never able to integrate them satisfyingly into my playing. Then I came across the blog article „diminished responsibility“ by „Jason Lyon on Music“ where nice rules are presented: e.g. play E harmonic minor over Eb dim in key of C. I applied it using additional b7 (D), to get an 8note scale, and was quite satisfied. Similarly I would play E harmonic minor with added D over H7 in minor II V in key of E. Later I found Jens Larsen also recommend this. Thanks to your channel and Barry Harris videos I changed my system to think of the H7 as D7 now (especially inspired by the „backdoor“ dominant videos), but mostly with added b9 (Eb). Now I am able to incoroprate all the nice dominant half step rules of Barry Harris! (still having the same notes as the e harmonic with added D) The „7th down to the 3rd of…“ way to do it is incredibly nice. With the diminished I can now to the same: I would think of Eb dim (biii dim in C) as D7 with added Eb. It is astonishing that even the „Things I learnt from Barry Harris“ (esp. episode 41 and 93) recommend the WTHT scale! One thing to note: there is one scale outline exercise on Indiana (key F maj) where over the Ab dim (biii dim) in bar 28 the scale Ab,A,H,C,D,E,F ascending, which is „7th of G7 down to the third of E7“ (which would be also usable over E7 in key of A min). I never was elsewhere able to find other written examples of scale outlines on diminished chords. You can find it on scribd with the title „Barry Harris Jazz Workshop“ and is a transcript of Howard Rees. Does anyone else know of other examples?

Loved this video and anything Barry Harris related. Explicitly, in text form for those new to dim7's in music: Ab dim7 = Bdim7 = Ddim7 = Fdim7 (Symmetry of minor 3rds in dim7 construction) Dim7 off the b9, 3, 5, or b7 of a dominant chord is a rootless 7b9, so it easily resolves as a V-I. Descending by half step with dim7s goes around the circle of fifths as rootless 7b9 chords. Concept is secondary diminished sevenths. Dbdim7 Cdim7 Bdim7 Cmaj7 Is A7b9 D7b9 G7b9 Cmaj7 A series of V-I's essentially via root, or implied root movement.

The diminished chord occurs in the harmonic minor scale, and since each note could be the root, gives you a choice of four scales to choose from.

Nice! I've also used that approach, but kinda missed the bIII note if playing the II7 as substitute for the bIIIdim. My other solution has been to play VII7b9 instead (or the VII major triad) , so that the bIII note is the third is inherently included in the voice leading. But, for example in the case of a #IVdim7 in the blues, I like to think it like you say, IV7b9, that's much more natural to me, I love plagal cadences! For me, it all depends on what comes before or after, and how my ear, or sometimes mind, can find a logic that makes sense in the most natural way.

I just superimpose harmonic minor over everything, contextually obviously. It just felt natural to grab the sharp 7th of Aeolian all the time, and I found that all the notes within that Arpeggio can give similar vibes. So for E Harmonic Aeolian you have D#, which stacks with F#, A and C. Which modally fits over G ionian for obvious reasons. I find it just really natural to blend those particular notes into my playing for a diminished passing tone feel, along with some chromatics and wholetone serialism. I'm not a jazz musician whatsoever, I just play guitar how I want to play it and dont understand all the endless mathematics and theory, it gets far too complicated for my smooth brain, I gave up at "drop voicings" as they sounded like crap to me for what I play and I just prefer full chord voicings myself, and some Allan Holdsworth voicings, I love his stuff. Cheers for this tidbit though.

Messed up my pinky again--aching to play. Awesome video--don't sleep on those diminished harmonies. Even though I am deep into the world of Barry Harris these days with one of his former bandmates, I've heard criticism of the whole half or half whole conception of the diminished from other teachers as well. Instead of thinking as a scale--think of the diminished arpeggio and the half steps below and whole steps above each chord tone. Then you can experiment with arpeggios that build on extensions of the diminished chord, like the major 7th, 9th, and 11th. There's so much to learn from the pedagogy of Barry Harris--so much more than arguments about bebop scales and "just play the V." Keep on keeping on ;)

So it sounds better when we consciously diminish our options?

Basically the analysis should be Cmaj7-A7b9/C#- Dmin7-B7b9/D#- Emin7. You play de mixolydien Flat9-Flat13 on those diminished chords. Ex A mixolydien b9-b13 on the C#dim7 etc.

Great lesson. If you have say C C#dim Dm7 G7 but the chart says Edim (instead of C#dim ie. the same chord tones) do you instinctively, on the hoof, think "Ah, that's really a C#dim" and stiil run down the Cdom scale from Bb note to C# note. Or would you run down the Ebdom etc etc. Isn't that a bit BH? Thanks

It’s strange how much the harmonic minor will cover… So either Ab harmonic min., F harm. min., or C harm. min. can cover an Ab dim. resolving to CMaj. depending upon the context of course.

Where did Barry go?

Monte?

I seriously doubt if Barry Harris would agree with your first example. The C-sharp diminished seventh chord is clearly a substitute for an a dominant seventh acting as a five of the next chord, the two chord, the D minor seventh if you wanna play some other scale over that C-sharp diminished seventh chord you could play in a fridge and major scale derive from the D harmonic, minor scale, but you certainly wouldn’t look at that chord as a sea dominant seventh chord, because it makes no sense functionally as far as the entire progression is concerned.

Great lesson!👍

I wrote a 16 bar blues that uses the notes of a diminished chord, F, D, G# and B. Then I play E7, C#7, G7 and Bb7 chords over that and let my mind be blown by what happens.