Half-Diminished Chords Deep Dive

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Pianist and educator Jeremy Siskind describes the history, uses, scales, and voicings for half-diminished (minor seventh, flat five) chords, including referencing the tune "Beautiful Love."

[@christopherhuber9037]

Need a whole section on my bookshelf for all these books!

[@JeremySiskind]

You and me both, bro!

[@cm-uy6ec]

Wonderful lesson Jeremy - Thank you

[@JeremySiskind]

My pleasure! Thank you for watching!

[@theoooms7277]

nice and interesting topic; I love the sound of these half diminished 7/minor 6 chords. I use them frequently in major, borrowing from minor.

[@JeremySiskind]

Nice!!!

[@abath07]

I play Barry Harris’s scale “the minor’s five”, not the three scales Jeremey suggested. It’s the only scale that keeps the chord tones on the beat, it has eight tones. Barry discovered it in the playing of Charlie Parker. It’s highly melodic.

[@JeremySiskind]

I’m curious! Can you tell me what the notes of that scale would be for like a C half diminished? C Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb B?

[@fondtrout6354]

@@JeremySiskind it’s like Eb-6/C with a b6 passing tone, (b6 of the Eb-6) it’s kind of like a bebop mode of melodic minor. C D Eb F Gb Ab Bb (B/Cb) C so if you analyze the passing tone in the context of C-7b5 it’s the maj7 but I think when people most successfully use this system they visualize an Eb-6 bebop scale and “put the 6 in the bass,” that is supposedly a semi-direct quote from Monk.

[@williamm2578]

great video dude. I like that you are doing more advanced theory like this. I find it hard to find channels that are for non "beginner" level. I've never really understood the half diminished chord so as soon as you started describing it i paused the video and played around with it on my piano. I was one of the freaks that was raising the 7 on a dim chord. I can see it both ways now, thanks. this is the first video of yours I've seen but I am excited to check out more. I would say that it would be nice to see what chord progressions you are going through in the examples you play but that is my only note and i understand if its too much work too add them in post. cheers

[@JeremySiskind]

Lol, “one of the freaks,” eh? Let me know if you have suggestions or questions you’d like me to address on my channel. Welcome to you!

[@brendaboykin3281]

Thank you, Maestro. Always great info. Loved the tip on Debussy. All the best. 🌹🌹🌹🌹Very thorough lesson. I love my "cop-out" minor 9b5=mode 2 harmonic major=no melodic minor math.😁

[@JeremySiskind]

Haha but you’ve got some harmonic major math to do then. I guess it’s trading one problem for another. 😂

[@stuartheadey5240]

That was really useful, Jeremy. I love the sound of the half diminished. They don't seem to cover it much in the classical curriculum.... At least not in my experience.

[@JeremySiskind]

Interesting! I agree with you at least so far as I don’t feel like Minor harmony is as well covered in music theory classes as major harmony and that frequently leaves out that half-diminished chord.

[@zacharyhadley2156]

Great to see a dive on this particular chord type! I like the usage of it like in "Night and Day" or "Christmas Time is Here", where you play a descending turnaround that starts on a half diminished chord a tritone a way from the root of the I and goes down chromatically to a ii-V back to the I. I wonder if there is a name for this type of turnaround?

[@JeremySiskind]

Good question! We’re going to have to give it a name. How about George? (Joking) I also associate that progression with “I Should Care” and “In a Sentimental Mood.”

[@zacharyhadley2156]

@@JeremySiskind Maybe "Tour De Force" by Dizzy Gillespie too sorta in its A section...Maybe these things don't need names but it seems there are patterns that re-occur out there! Its really interesting to me...

[@kareemakhtar6691]

Debussy Liszt Gillespie in one awesome lesson - nice!

[@JeremySiskind]

Haha, thanks! Who knew they had anything in common?!

[@cabijista1]

Nice, always great to see different peoples take on these pesky chords 😂. Just like to share another possible way of creating 5 note voicings for half diminished chords that harkens back to the idea that they’re really minor 6th chords, and that’s to create voicings from every other note of what’s sometimes called the minor 6 pentatonic scale, ex: C, D, Eb, G, A (just a major pentatonic with a flat 3), a minor 3rd away. So for example, to voice A half dim, we can play every other note of C minor 6 pentatonic, a la C, Eb, A, D, G. The cool thing too is that this works starting on any note of the minor 6 pentatonic so this gives us 5 different voicings, ex: C, Eb, A, D, G or Eb, A, D, G, C, etc.

[@JeremySiskind]

Yes! Very good and I love the pentatonic approach. Thanks for sharing. I definitely know some players and teachers who are very into seeing a half diminished chord as the minor sixth in inversion. I got where they’re coming from, but I’ve never found that extra step necessary personally.

[@melius9525]

I've understood that the name half-diminished chord comes from the fact that when contrasted to a minor seventh chord, only the interval of a fifth is diminished whereas in the °7 chord the interval of a fifth and the m7 are both diminished (therefore fully-diminished). Don't know about the common practice in the US, but here in Finland the °7 chord is also very carefreeingly called when translated; a fully-diminished (seventh) chord in everyday use😊.

[@melius9525]

It also would be super weird to diminish the prime (the root) or the minor third any further and I figure that's why only the fifth and the seventh are diminished and the subsequent chord is considered "fully-diminished". So the °7 chord is a fully diminished form of the minor seventh chord whereas the half-diminished chord is the... well, half-diminished form of the minor seventh chord... Just my two cents 🤔.

[@melius9525]

One could ALSO argue that the minor sixth chord is some sort of a different half-diminished chord as well when contrasted with the minor seventh chord (this I mean in addition to it being an inversion of the half-diminished chord of course) if you were to think about it with its minor seventh being diminished to a sixth and the fifth staying natural... But that's an argument to be made for another day 😁.

[@JeremySiskind]

Wow there’s a lot here! That seems to match up with my understanding of why we refer to it as half-diminished, at the very least!

[@shreddaily101]

Hi Jeremy great video as always, this compliments your book very nicely. I have a question that I thought you might be able to touch on some day. I feel like I am always “voice leading” when I comp, but when I listen to others I here them jump around and make leaps and lines. When is it appropriate to jump and shift in your comping, and when should you strictly voice lead? Thanks for all your content.

[@JeremySiskind]

Great question! Before anything else, it seems like you have most of the answer your question in the question. You are absolutely right that voice leading is important but when you listen to the greats, who is leading is only one of several considerations. Often times, the voice leading of the top note is prioritize and other things or sacrificed. You might replace the idea voice leading with making sure the top now to the voicing makes a melody.

[@ernsterlanson]

@@JeremySiskind FWIW my addition here would be that I think working out proper voiceleadings for chords opens, or focus my ears on how the chords move between each other. Which then creates oppurtunities for creating lines in comping etc. But I have also been thinking to myself, "why I am sitting here voice-leading carefully when the masters just seem to play around".

[@felixtani4030]

Nice! Barry Harris uses the Harmonic minor on the whole minor 2-5 .

[@JeremySiskind]

Yes - I’m an advocate for that too! It’s in the new book. 😉

[@thekeyoflifepiano]

How bad would it be to learn Jazz on a 61 semi-weighted keyboard if I already can play other genres well on a standard piano?

[@JeremySiskind]

I think it’s okay! in general, as you to higher levels of artistry, you are going to want more keys, but to get started and you can use a smaller instrument.

[@b5k]

Thanks, informative video! Can you explain what is happening to the Bb in the Dminor chord at about 12:30? You are playing the B as a natural, which is not in the D minor scale. Is that a 6/9 chord instead of Dmmaj7/Dm7 ? And why is the 6 natural in that case?

[@JeremySiskind]

Great question! Tonic minor chords are generally played using the 6th (the 6th from the major scale, as you observed). The shortest explanation is because it is the best sounding chord for that function. Minor major seventh chords are possible but are very tense. The Minor six rubs up against the fifth of the chord too much to be useful. The minor seventh (Dm7) excludes the leading tone and thus doesn’t work very well in a tonic function.

[@b5k]

@@JeremySiskind Thanks for the reply. What is the leading tone you're referring to here (Dm7)?

[@JeremySiskind]

@@b5k Leading tone in the key of D minor would be C#.

[@b5k]

@@JeremySiskind Ok, thank you!

[@giannigimondi1789]

How can I buy your book?

[@JeremySiskind]

In the United States, the best place to do it is at www.JeremySiskind.com/shop. Internationally, you can still buy the PDF from my site, but if you want the physical book, you can buy it from Amazon.

[@JeremySiskind]

And thanks for asking!