Diminished 7 Chords – Easy Connections With Dominant 7 And Minor 6

Dom7, Dim7 And Min6 Chord Construction – Some Basics
Before dealing with the main topic of the lesson, you need to know what a dominant 7 chord, a diminished chord and a minor 6 chord is, either by clicking on the corresponding links or by reading the following reminder.

• A dominant 7 chord is built with a root (R), major third (3), perfect fifth (5) and major seventh (7). This is a major chord but with a minor seventh.
• A Diminished 7 chord is made of root (R), minor third (b3), diminished fifth (b5) and diminished seventh (bb7). It is symmetric, meaning that there can be four different diminished chords in one chord, because a diminished 7 chord based on an equal division of the octave into four minor third intervals.
• A minor 6 chords is built of a root (R), minor third (b3), perfect fifth (5) and major sixth (6). This is a minor triad with an added sixth.

The chord position that will serve as a basis for all the examples below is a drop 2 Fdim7 with the root note on the fifth string. The notes are F (Root) – Cb (b5) – Ebb (bb7) and Ab (b3).

It is possible to get four different dominant 7 chords by lowering only one note of a diminished seventh chord. Here are four examples implying Fdim7, G7, Db7, Bb7 and E7.

In this first example the b3 of Fdim7 is lowered by a half-step to obtain a G7 with the b7 in the bass (G7/F).

Here, the bb7 (written Ebb but same as D) of Fdim7 is lowered by a half-step to get a Db7 chord with 3rd in the bass (Db7/F).

This time, this is the b5 (Cb) of Fdim7 that is lowered to get a Bb7 with the 5th in the bass (Bb7/F).

The fourth example shows the root of Fdim7 lowered by a half-step to get an E7.

The second part of the concept is to raise by a half-step one note of a dim7 chord in order to get a minor 6 chord. Here are four examples implying Fdim7, Dm6, Abm6, Fm6 and Bm6.

In the first example the b3 of Fdim7 is raised to become the 6th of Dm6/F (Dm6 with minor third in the bass).

In this one, the bb7 of Fdim7 is raised by a half-step to get an Abm6 chord with 6th in the bass (Abm6/F). Notice that this chord voicing can also be considered a half-diminished chord with root in the bass (Fm7b5).

In this example, the b5 of Fdim7 is raised by a half-step, thus giving an Fm6 chord.

To finish, the root of Fdim7 is raised by a half-step to get the fifth of Bm6/F#. 

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