Lots of teachers treat the diminished chords like something dangerous and scary, or something there isn’t much use for, or something that’s just to complicated to understand.
Diminished chords are sort of rebels living by their own rules. Maybe that’s why teachers set them off to the side of the map where it reads; “Thar be Dragons.” But diminished chords really aren’t that hard to add to a chord progression.
This weeks musical idea takes a look at one way to relate to diminished chords. They’re related to the Left Neighbor of the “key” chord in BEAD Guides Chord Flow. That means they can be used in place of the left neighbor, as a substitute.
Diminished chords definitely have a distinct flavor. Perhaps they are an acquired taste, but I’m guessing once you get a feel for them, you’ll enjoy them more and more. Check out the sheet below!
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Interview with Timmy on the Raw Songwriting Podcast! A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of getting interviewed by David Coile for his “Raw Songwriting” Podcast. It was a great time, so good it had to be split into two episodes. Here’s a link to Part I. (It can also be found on whichever podcast platform you use).
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The Prompt:
The Musical Idea:
Here’s a downloadable pdf of the worksheet above:
timmyr.com 