A diminished seventh chord is a four note chord that comprises a diminished triad plus the interval of a diminished seventh (alternatively regarded enharmonically as a major sixth) above the root. Thus it is (1, ♭3, ♭5, 7), or enharmonically (1, ♭3, ♭5, 6), of any minor scale; for example, C diminished-seventh would be (C, E♭, G♭, B), or enharmonically (C, E♭, G♭, A). It occurs as a leading-tone seventh chord in harmonic minor and can be represented by the integer notation {0, 3, 6, 9}.
Because of this it can also be viewed as four notes all stacked in intervals of a minor third. The diminished seventh contains two diminished fifths, which often resolve inwards.
In most sheet music books, Cdim or C° denotes a diminished seventh chord with root C; but it may also happen, mostly in modern jazz books and some music theory literature, that Cdim or C° denotes a diminished triad chord, while Cdim7 or C°7 denotes a diminished seventh chord.
Read more about Diminished Seventh Chord: Uses, Diminished Seventh Root, Inversions, Diminished Seventh Chord Table
Famous quotes containing the words diminished, seventh and/or chord:
“The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Tired,
she looked up the path
her lover would take
as far as her eyes could see.
On the roads,
traffic ceased
at the end of day
as night slid over the sky.
The traveller’s pained wife
took a single step towards home,
said, “Could he not have come at this instant?”
and quickly craning her neck around,
looked up the path again.”
—Amaru (c. seventh century A.D.)
“Give me the keys. I feel for the common chord again,
Sliding by semi-tones till I sink to a minor,—yes,
And I blunt it into a ninth, and I stand on alien ground,
Surveying a while the heights I rolled from into the deep;
Which, hark, I have dared and done, for my resting-place is found,
The C Major of this life: so, now I will try to sleep.”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)