How to use Diminished Chords for Jazz Guitar

Part of a Facebook Live Lesson session, decided to record it on my camera in addition to the live broadcast.

The original FB Live video is here (low-res):

Thanks to Adam Joseph for the question on using chromatic harmony that led to this explanation. 🙂

Diatonic Triads in C Major:
C Dmin Emin F G Amin Bdim C

Diatonic 7th chords (4-part chords) in C Major:
Cmaj7 Dmin7 Emin7 Fmaj7 G7 Amin7 Bmin7(b5) Cmaj7

Passing Diminished Chords
Ascending:
CMaj7 C#dim7 Dmin7
Dmin7 D#dim7 Emin7
Fmaj7 F#dim7 G7
G7 G#dim7 Amin7
Amin7 A#dim7 Bmin7(b5)

Descending:
Bmin7(b5) Bbdim7 Amin7
Amin7 Abdim7 G7
G7 Gbdim7 Fmaj7
Emin7 Ebdim7 Dmin7
Dmin7 Dbdim7 Cmaj7

Here’s a handout that you can download & print out to further cement these sounds:

Passing Diminished Chords for Jazz Guitar

[UPDATE April 7 2017]

Shoutout to @mhaziqka on twitter for trying out these ideas in his playing! 🙂

@azsamad hello sir. Ni result nya, saya cuba masukkan diminished pic.twitter.com/GLTDbDZ3de

— – (@mhaziqka) April 6, 2017

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