In this lesson, we’ll be exploring one of the important aspects of the diminished major ninth chord.
Although diminished chords are rarely used most popular music styles, you can hear a lot of them in gospel music where passing chords are used extensively in chord progressions.
Before we go into our goal in today’s lesson, let”s take a closer look at the diminished major ninth chord.
The diminished major ninth chord is an extended diminished chord and the toast of gospel pianists and keyboardists.
Check out the the C diminished major ninth chord:
…which is basically a C diminished triad:
…with B and D:
…which are a major seventh:
…and a major ninth:
…above the root (which is C):
Side by side with the C major ninth chord:
…the C diminished major ninth chord can be seen as a C major ninth chord with a lowered third and fifth tone.
Lowering the third and fifth tones of the C major ninth chord:
…which are E and G:
…by a half step to Eb and Gb:
…produces the C diminished major ninth chord:
“Check Out All The Diminished Major Ninth Chords…”
C diminished major ninth chord:
C# diminished major ninth chord:
D diminished major ninth chord:
D# diminished major ninth chord:
E diminished major ninth chord:
F diminished major ninth chord:
F# diminished major ninth chord:
G diminished major ninth chord:
G# diminished major ninth chord:
A diminished major ninth chord:
Bb diminished major ninth chord:
B diminished major ninth chord:
One of the reasons why gospel musicians love the diminished major ninth chord is because it’s tritonic.
Tritonic chords are chords that consist of the tritone – which is one of the fascinating elements of dominant chords.
If you take a closer look at the C diminished major ninth:
…(or any other diminished major ninth chord) you’ll see that the interval between its root (which is C) and its fifth (which is Gb):
…is a tritone.
Due to the fact that the diminished ninth chord contains the tritone, a vast majority of top piano players incorporate in the the formation of dominant chords and I’ll be showing you how they do that in the next segment.