Week 1: New Chord Challenge

Hello everyone! I've been sort of just lurking around for the past month checking in when I can, but I feel like I haven't been contributing. So, my roommate and I came up with this idea since he has a better ear than I do, but I know more about guitar, we are going to combine our knowledge to undertake a weekly challenge:

Every week for the next 8 weeks, we will choose a chord. In that given week, we will have to find someway to use that chord in a song, whether in be part of a progression, arpeggiated, fingerpicked, etc. Though we must write something that will use this chord shape in one week. I figured, why not let the rest of this board benefit from our undertaking.

So here's the deal:

1. Somewhere at the beginning of the week (I know it's tuesday, shut up) I will select a chord for us to all learn about.
2. I will post a little bit of background on the chord, how it could be used or where it is being used.
3. You will all noodle around on your guitar with it.
4. Record your favorite riff, progression, lick, etc.
5. Post here and explain to us your mentality when you approached this problem (MOST IMPORTANT PART!!!)

I feel we can all benefit from our learning process. What you guys think?


This week: Dim7 chord.

Here's some background on where it's used in Jazz and Blues:
How to Use the Diminished 7 Chord

Here's a chord breakdown of fingerings:
Guitar Chords: Dim7
(Note: This website has the fingerings for all forms of the dim7, and you can use any one you want. It can be Cdim7, Dbdim7, etc.)


Good luck, and I hope we can all learn some new chords through this.

Kudos JustJeff for this thread. I think it's a great Idea!

cool idea. Ill try to do some of these.

http://www.aviary.com/artists/freud7/creations/intro_

this is my dim7 riff. Its pretty much just an arpeggiated BDim7 with a little bit of latin influence made into a metal riff. (also I thought it would sound cool harmonized so I played with it a little)

@tgg

That sounds ridiculously good!! This is exactly what I was hoping people would be contributing. Hopefully I can get my stuff up by sunday. I'll be switching up chords on Monday/Tuesday.

thanks jeff. I cant wait for the next one.

This is a lick I use in D minor. It plays a Ddim7 arpeggio followed by a Ddim7 chord before resolving to the D minor.

e--------------10-13-10----------------13-----10--

B-----------12----------12-------------12-----10--

G-----10-13----------------13-10-------13-----10--

D--12----------------------------12----12-----12--

A-------------------------------------------------

E-------------------------------------------------

@mosh

Love the lick! That jazz sound is ridiculous! What is your setup for that tone?

I'll be doing a 300 mile drive tomorrow, so hopefully I can get mine recorded by the end of the day tomorrow. Then, I'll be making a new thread with another chord end of day monday! So anyone else get your recordings in!

video fail for me, really wish I could listen.

Edit: Could listen, sweet lick!

Thanks guys. :D
@Jeff No special setup. I plugged direct to the interface(Cakewalk UA-1G). After recording on Sonar LE, I added VST's- Stereo Chorus & Reverb.

If you liked this check out the lick I posted D Minor Exotic. It's similar but adds a couple of notes to the Diminished arpeggio to get an exotic feel.

Thanks mosh! I'll have to look into it.

Here's what I came up with.

Progression:

F(1), F#dim7(1), Dm, G, Edim7, F(2), Bdim7, Am, Fmaj7, F#dim7(2), Gm7, C7

Somehow this works. I have no idea. It came up from me basically wanted to work in an inverted dim chord, and that ended up not happening. In fact, I ended up using the dim7 chord to change my key. Here are the fingerings.

F(1):   F#dim7(1): Gmin:   G:      Edim7:

|-x-|   |-6-|      |-5-|   |-3-|   |-3-|

|-6-|   |-5-|      |-6-|   |-3-|   |-2-|

|-5-|   |-6-|      |-7-|   |-4-|   |-3-|

|-7-|   |-5-|      |-7-|   |-5-|   |-2-|

|-8-|   |-x-|      |-5-|   |-x-|   |-x-|

|-x-|   |-x-|      |-x-|   |-x-|   |-x-|



F(2):   Bdim7:  Am:     Fmaj7:  F#dim7(2)

|-1-|   |-x-|   |-0-|   |-x-|   |-x-|

|-1-|   |-3-|   |-1-|   |-1-|   |-1-|

|-2-|   |-1-|   |-2-|   |-2-|   |-2-|  

|-3-|   |-3-|   |-2-|   |-2-|   |-1-|   

|-x-|   |-2-|   |-0-|   |-x-|   |-x-| 

|-x-|   |-x-|   |-x-|   |-1-|   |-2-| 



Gm7:   C7:

|-x-|   |-0-|

|-3-|   |-1-|

|-3-|   |-3-| 

|-3-|   |-2-|

|-x-|   |-3-|

|-3-|   |-x-|

There are some passing notes, but with the chord phrasing I show here, you should be able to replicate what I played. Here's the recording of the piece.

I've got a recording I'll get it uploaded sometime but thought I'd share my idea. I basically ripped off the progression in one of the expmaple lessons.

How to Use the Diminished 7 Chord

In the lesson they were talking about using the dim7 sharp to replace a iv chord and the example is used in jazz a lot. I thought that's hogwash, that's a rock riff if i ever hard one. When I started to play it reminded me of something the Stokes would play or maybe a Cars song. What I liked about it is in Part B where you had that chromatice building up to the do (C, C#, D)

Cmaj7 - Am7 - Dm7 - G7 - Cmaj7 - C#dim7 - Dm7 - G7

Part A



  Cmaj7                                 Am7

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------5--------5----------5--------5----------5--------5----------5----------5---

--------4--------4----------4--------4----------5--------5----------5----------5---

--------5--------5----------5--------5----------5--------5----------5----------5---

--3--3--3--3--3--3----3--3--3--3--3--3---------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------5--5--5--5--5--5----5--5--5----5--5--5---

Dm7                                             G7

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------6--------6----------6-----------6---------------------------------------------

-------5--------5----------5-----------5----------4--------4----------4--------4-----

-------7--------7----------7-----------7----------3--------3----------3--------3-----

-5--5--5--5--5--5----5--5--5--5--5--5--5----------5--------5----------5--------5-----

--------------------------------------------3--3--3--3--3--3----3--3--3--3--3--3-----

Part B



  Cmaj7              C#dim7               Dm7                                         G7

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------5--------5----------5--------5----------6--------6----------6-----------6----

--------4--------4----------3--------3----------5--------5----------5-----------5----

--------5--------5----------5--------5----------7--------7----------7-----------7----

--3--3--3--3--3--3----4--4--4--4--4--4----5--5--5--5--5--5----5--5--5--5--5--5--5----

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



G7

----------------------------------------

----------------------------------------

------4--------4----------4--------4-----

------4--------4----------4--------4-----

------3--------3----------3--------3-----

------5--------5----------5--------5-----

3--3--3--3--3--3----3--3--3--3--3--3-----

I was not sure how you got the cool enbedded little files and I did not want to spend a lot of time figurieng it out so that link will pull up my example. Enjoy and CHEERS!!!!

Telecrater's Week 1 Chord

@telecrater

Use 4shared.com - That's what let's you embed.

Great example telecrater! Seems like you guys like this idea. I'll try to keep it up and bring in some good background information and chord suggestions. :)

@jeff dim7 are just like Dom7 and are sub for them quite a bit. your basically playing A V7-I over and over (you have a lydain dom in there as well which is just an inverted resolution). I would recommend looking into be-bop scale harmonizations block chord type things their going to show you them all as 6th chords but I figure you smart enough to figure it out. I'd look into Bill Evans If you haven't. (JFYI if you do check out the be bob scale stuff it's all going to be into closed voice just drop the second note to make Drop 2 vocings).



@tele part B is used all the time in jazz. Fats Waller's "ain't misbehaven'" start with it just in Eb


Another fun thing to do with Dim7 is to use them as a point of color in a Dom7 chord. It is just in blues a lot. All you do is just divide the time of the Dom7 and play a Dim7 who has the root in it.

examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyQOCJ4SUSk

It on the first bar of E.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh5zTCdNH_0

Johnson doing a skip tune again on the first bar of A

@Jeff... 2 thumbs up on this thread. There is lots of good info here.