Half-Diminished 7th Run Revealed

April 17,2011

This post is related to the Diminished 7th Chord which was talked about in a previous posting down below.

Click here to visit: This Week's Music School: Diminished 7th Chord

Half-diminished and diminished 7th chords are very important.

Not only do they naturally occur on the 7th tone of any major scale, they are used as leading or passing chords for major chords on the 5th tone.

They can also occur a half step above the one. These diminished chords are a great tool to have and to use if you ever want to spice up your playing.

Today, we are going to teach you a half-diminished run based off of the following chord below:




In the example above we see a G diminished 7th chord in 3rd inversion. This run is great in C#.

To create the diminished run it is basically the notes above going chromatically.


Here is the run:

C#,A#,G,E,D#,C#,C,C#

The ending note is the C#. If you want to make it more challenging (which I have a feeling most of you would) Try adding additional notes by starting from the E instead of the C#. One thing that works for me is that once you get to the E try going down chromatically to the C#.

This run is to really turn peoples heads because the diminished chord is a very common chord to play in all types of genres such as Rock, Jazz, Gospel, R and B and more.


What are your thoughts on the half-diminished run? Leave us a comment and share your opinion.

Best Wishes,

12 Days of Music: Day 2 - Runs and Fill-ins

Welcome to the second day of the twelve days of music. Today I am just going to get right to it. We are going to be focusing on Runs and Fills. This is a great technique for quick solos on the spot if you are running out of ideas. This is good for musicians who play guitar, piano, organ, bass.

Have you ever wondered how people can do quick runs on the spot without practicing?
Here is one of those highly guarded techniques

SOLO THE CHORD

No matter what the chord is you can always solo it. You can chop the notes, or make it flow just remember to bring it back home when you first start the run.


The second way to construct runs if you are on the go is to use the blues scale.

Here is the formula to create blue scales

1 - b3 - 4 - b5 - 5 - b7 - 1

This principle can be applied in all twelve keys

Let's go to the Key of A (I know many musicians love the black keys but you need to know A)

A - C - D - Eb - E - G - A

If you hit any one of those notes while playing a major chord you can't be wrong.
The fact is that every musician has a different style and you need to find your creativity in music.

**Tip: Try adding a chromatic in the mix and see how it sounds

If you don't like the blues scale try the major pentatonic scale (which is a major scale without the 4th and 7th note)

Here is it in the Key of A

A - B - C# - E - F# - A

Be creative and experiment and this is a good foundation to use to build your soloing techniques.

Also, you need to have good coordination with your fingers. I realize that a lot of people have the issue of coordinating with their fingers and I recommend to try Hanon exercises because they help the finger dexterity and the finger positioning. Great tool for musicians who want to solo like the pros.

For more information on Hanon Exercises visit

Click Here to Learn More Hanon Exercises


Best Wishes and Stay Tooned For Day 3