diminished colors / dominant harmony

There are basically two important dominant chord type colorings that involve the diminishing of chordal intervals, both of which are potentially essential on the jazz artist's palette. Although occasionally used in American blues and pop music, these altered dominant chords are rather rare in the folk, rock, country stylings etc.

The first dominant color to be examined here is basically a vanilla dominant seventh ( V 7 ) chord that diminishes it's fifth degree by half step, commonly called the the "dominant seventh flat five" ( V 7 b5 ). Compare the spellings of the dominant 7th and it's diminished cousin, using the pitch G, the dominant of the key of C major, as the common root of both chords. Are you cool with spelling chords? Example 1.

Great ... now we have two tritones, G to Db and B to F, to resolve instead of just one, as present in the vanilla V 7 chord. Oh well, we're just a half step away right? So where do we find and use this interesting dominant color? Well, just about anywhere a dominant chord will go, with four possibilities emerging as reasonably common positionings. Let's explore these four spots and see what we can come up with.

As a Five chord, the V 7 b5 chord is cool in that it helps us get a nice chromatic motion in the lead or melody line. In C major, example 2.

Building this dominant color on the second degree of the major tonality, we create a common non-diatonic Five of Two harmonic motion. Example 2a.

Read through A. C. Jobim's "Desafinado" to hear the above harmonic coolness. For a swing thing using the above motions, "Take The A Train" by Billy Strayhorn is potentially an essential read for the aspiring jazz musician.

In the minor tonality, we often encounter this V 7 b5 color built on the sixth degree, oftentimes preceded by Two and followed by Five, then resolving to the tonic. Example 2b.

"Suger" by Stanley Turrentine uses this motion to a lovingly sensual, bluesy effect.

Building this color on the b7 in the major tonality, we can create a simple non-diatonic vamp using a common tone between the tonic and b 7 chords. Example 2c.

Perhaps try inserting this vamp between choruses, to jam on, as an intro whatever. Oh, what chord do we create if we move the b5 pitch up one octave in the voicing? Remember the augmented dominant colors? Right, the V 7 + 11 chord. Easy enough eh?

The second important way we can employ the diminished color with dominant harmony involves using a fully diminished chord within the upper structure of a dominant seventh chord. Actually this combination becomes a dominant 9th chord whereby the 9th degree of the chord is lowered a half step, creating the ultracool dominant seventh flat nine ( V 7 b9 ). Let's build a chart, spell these chords out and look for the diminished chord within. Example 3.

From the above chart we can see that our fully diminished seventh chord is created starting from the third degree of the V 7 b9 chord. The consecutive minor third intervals can create some interesting possibilities for the creative theorist. Let's place this V 7b9 color into the common resolving Two / Five / One harmonic motion and see what we've got here. In the C major tonality, example 3a.

In the C minor tonality. Example 3b.

Both of these cadences using the V 7b9 color are very common in the literature of jazz standards. Perhaps the Rogers and Hart classic "My Funny Valentine" would be a good vehicle to begin exploring the V 7 b9 color in both the major and minor tonalities. 

Another common chord progression using the above V 7 b9 color is in the Three / Six / Two / Five cadential motion. From one perspective, we are simply "doubling up" the Two / Five motion from above. In the major tonality, thinking C major, example 3c.

Is the above chord progression diatonic? Nope. Does it matter? Nope, not if that's what we are hearing. In the minor tonality, we can use the same cadential motion. Thinking C minor, example 3d.

In both of the last two examples, we used a parallel motion to create the chord progressions. Obviously there are other possible voice leadings. Explore.

With the fully diminished chord within the V 7b9 dominant color being constructed exclusively of the minor third interval, some interesting possibilities emerge. One involves evolving the Three / Six / Two / Five by moving the Three / Six segment of the progression down a minor third. What we end up with is a cool cycling of Two / Fives a half step apart. Thinking C major, the above progression emerges from the theory. Example 3e.

Whether written into the changes or merely subbed out in our improvised melodies, this double Two / Five, a half step apart, based on the properties of the diminished color, creates an interesting improvisational challenge as well as potentially generating a good bit of musical excitement. John Coltrane's classic "Moments Notice" uses the above harmonic motion to a swinging, dramatic effect.

A second bonus with the fully diminished seventh chord within the V 7b9 chord takes advantage of the potential for each of the pitches within the diminished chord being a leading tone to other key centers. How? Well by lowering any one of the pitches of the diminished chord by half step, we can create four different dominant seventh chords.  Really? Let's explore this possibility. Here is a chart sketching out the possibilities.  Example 4.

Pretty neat huh? But what do it mean? It means that the same identical pitches of the fully diminished seven chord within the G 7b9 dominant color also exist in Bb 7b9, Db 7b9 and E 7 b9. Get out of town! Is this for real? Here is the chart of the pitches, see for yourself. Example 4a.

Pretty cool huh? With a bit of enharmonic respelling, we can see from the chart above the same group of pitches within the four V 7b9 chords. So, with a little artistic license, we can create common cadential motions that go to unusual tonal destinations. Such as... For starters, let's add the diatonic Two chord to each of the dominant chords in the chart and resolve these four Two / Five turnarounds into one tonality, which of course will be C major in the following music. Example 4b.

Will these four Two / Five's also resolve to the keys of Eb, Gb and A? Major and minor? Sure, why not? If our artistic license includes the above possibilities, does it also include the myriad of "mix and match" potentials that we can imagine from the above chart? Of course it does. Can we also "soften" the diminished color to other hues of dominant harmony and apply the same multiple resolving principles? Now your talking. There really is no limit to the possibilities, except those created by our own learning blocks, which we can strive to challenge and remove everyday yes? Knowing the theory, as in the above diminished / b9 relationships, oftentimes helps to come up with new combinations. These new combinations can help to "disguise" our musical intent and directions, potentially creating humor, surprises, curiosity and excitement in our music.

This kind of application of the theory tends to create music within the broad musical style of American music known as jazz, indigenous American music of the highest order, from both the theoretical and performance perspectives. Believe you me, playing at this level is not that easy, writing interesting musical compositions at this level is even a greater challenge. But putting it all together and making memorable music, to share with those we love, is well worth the effort of our attempts to meet these challenges.

Cool with this? What's next? How about where we might employ these uniquely altered dominant colors within our two main musical environments?

Or perhaps begin a survey of the theoretical concepts and principles within this text regarding improvisation / tonal convergence?

I think one's own feelings waste themselves in words, they ought to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results. Florence Nightingale