Diminished and Augmented Chords
In This Chapter:
1. Filling spaces and using half-step motion 2. Playing diminished chords and inversions 3. Playing augmented chords and inversions 4. Creating chromatic voice leading
In this chapter, I am going to explain how chords a whole-step apart are sometimes connected with passing chords, similar to the way players use chro-matic passing tones to connect different scale de-grees. We will look at both chromatic passing chords and diminished seventh chords. We will also take a look at V7 substitutions and augmented chords.
This chapter will help you understand chords that seem to neither belong to the parent key nor to be borrowed from another one.
Chromatic Passing Chords
Composers and players use passing chords in a progression similar to the way they use passing notes in a scale. Just as you can use chromatic passing notes between different scale degrees, you can use chromatic passing chords to connect different chords. A common approach is to simply move by half-steps as you change from one chord to another.
For example, if a progression moves from V to IV, you could add in another chord between them. See Figure 5-01 for an example in the key of F.
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Volume IIYou can hear a chromatic passing chord like this used in the song “The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix.
The chord progression is based on the tonic chord F. In the verse’s chord progression, C-B-B
b
-F, B is a chromatic passing chord connecting the C and Bb
chords, V and IV. There is also chromatic movement in the introduction with the chords Eb
-E-F.Hendrix also uses chromatic passing chords in other songs including “Bold As Love.” This song is in A major with borrowing from the Mixolydian mode, guitars tuned down a half-step to E
b
. A G♯ chord isplaced between G and A,
b
VII and I, at the end of measure eight just before the beginning of the chorus.Figure 5-02 presents another example that uses chromatic passing chords. Here the key is E minor. The progression starts with a G major chord and moves downward by semitones to Em through F♯ and F.
While the G chord belongs to E minor, F♯ and F are simply being used as passing chords as the progres-sion moves to Em.
Figure 5-01
Figure 5-02
We see the same progression in the song “I’m a Man,” by The Spencer Davis Group. Listen to the vocal melody and harmonies to hear that they do not change keys for each of the chords, instead they simply stay in the chords. Lead guitar players can do the same, or simply use an E minor pentatonic pattern over the complete progression.
“Life Without You” by Stevie Ray Vaughan also connects the relative major and minor chords like in the last example, only this time in the key of A (guitars tuned down a half-step to E
b
) with the chords A-G♯ -G-F♯m. These chords also appear in an ascending fashion as F♯m-G-G♯-A. Stevie Ray Vaughan uses this type of chromatic movement throughout the song. In other parts of the verse, we see chromatic chord movement from I up to a major III chord, and from IV down to a major II chord.Figure 5-03 presents chromatic passing chords in the key of G. The progression uses all major chords with chromatic passing chords between G and A, and A and B.
Figure 5-03
A great example of a song that’s similar to the progression in Figure 5-03 is “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce. It uses the progression I-II-III-IV-V in the key of G, all major chords with chromatic passing chords between I-II and II-III.
“Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder uses a chromatic passing chord between VI and V in the key of B. We see more chromatic movement in the pre-chorus with ninth chords focusing on chords IV and V.
We often hear blues players using half-step motion to move into the main chords of a twelve-bar blues. It is very common to approach a I chord or IV chord by either a half-step above or below. In the third phrase, the V chord can be connected to the IV chord with a passing chord as well. A common ending to a blues song is to play the I chord, move up a fret, and move back down again. Sometimes this ending is reversed, moving from I down a fret and back up again. See Figure 5-04.
Figure 5-04
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Volume IIThis technique carries over into rock and roll. Both “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley and “Heartache To-night” by The Eagles have progressions where their main chords are approached by a half-step.
Figure 5-05 presents another example of a twelve-bar blues in G with a more complex and jazzy progres-sion. This includes chromatic movement in several places.
Figure 5-05
“Stormy Monday” by The Allman Brothers Band, a blues in G, uses chromatic chords in a similar manner to the last example. Both a ♯I chord and a ♯II chord appear in this song. Several versions of this song exist.
Depending on how it’s played, the IV chord is often approached chromatically from above by one fret, as is the V chord. Approaching the main chords of a blues progression from a half-step above or below, espe-cially with ninth chords, is fairly common.
Funk is another style of music where we see a lot of half-step movement in its chord changes. It’s very common for a tonic chord to be moved up or down a fret as shown in Figure 5-06.
Figure 5-06
Sometimes a chord will be moved up or down more than one fret with a couple of chromatic steps. “Play That Funky Music” by Wild Cherry has an E9 chord played with F♯9 and F9. Stevie Ray Vaughan plays an E9 together with an E
b
9 and F9 in “Wall of Denial.”Figure 5-07 presents a jazzy example in C that features a chromatic passing chord in between the Em7 and Dm7 chords.
Figure 5-07
“Changes” by David Bowie includes the chords C-Dm7-Em7-E
b
m7-Dm7-G7 in C major during the sec-tion where he sings, “So I turned myself to face me.” The Eb
m7chord is a nice chromatic passing chord between iii and ii. The song’s introduction also has similar half-step movement.Although not a guitar part, the “easy come, easy go, little high, little low” section in “Bohemian Rhapsody”
by Queen is built from the chords B-B
b
-A-Bb
, the Bb
chord passing between B and A.One final, and very well-known, example that uses chromatic passing chords is the popular Christmas song “White Christmas.” The beginning of each verse contains the progression Cmaj7-Dm7-Cmaj7-B maj7- C maj7-Dm7-D♯m7-Em7. This includes a half-step into the I chord and another one in between the ii and iii chords.