Do Diminished Chords Make Good Passing Chords? Please Weigh In

[John H]

I understand just enough music theory to be dangerous. I once read and to my ear, that diminished chords make great passing chords. I ask because I am trying to incorporate them into my next submission. In fact, I already did incorporate a couple in my last submission. I am just trying to understand a little better. Any help or discussion would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

John H.

[Michael L]

Hey John, in the right place diminished chords make great passing chords. They give you a nice moving base line, usually in half steps, not to mention the interesting harmonies in the upper tones. I think Brian gave them pretty good treatment in EP413.

Also, Adam Levy did a good job of making them more understandable for me:

Hope this helps.

[John H]

Yes it most certainly does Michael. Thank you!

[sunjamr]

I always thought the coolest use of Dim chords was to string them into an ascending sequence, like this:

Sunjamr Steve

[Michael L]

I haven’t hear Ray Stevens in years! Thanks Steve, this was a treat.

[John H]

I’ll say wow! Passing chords they are!

[Jean-Michel G]

Sure, dim7 chords make excellent passing chords.
But I would recommend taking care of the voicings of the chords when using them.

The basic idea is to create a smooth transition between two chords (voice leading). For example, let’s say you want to go from C to Dm. One nice way of doing this is to go from C/E (E G C G) to Eb7° (Eb A C Gb) to Dm (D A D F). The bass goes E -> Eb -> D while the “melody” goes G -> Gb -> F. The inner voices alos move smoothly.
If you would play root position cowboy chords, the movements of the chord tone would be less smooth.

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