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Position:Home>Performing Arts> Help explaining minor keys: diminished and half-diminished chords?Question: Help explaining minor keys: diminished and half-diminished chords?In my music theory class we just finished up talking about major chords and have moved on to minor keys and the chords involved in them. Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Let's say we're in the key of a minor, with no sharps or flats... the vii7 would be made up of G#,B,D,F. You would use G# as a raised leading tone, so you would have to be in harmonic minor, not natural or melodic. G#-B is a minor triad B-D is a minor triad D-F is a minor triad G#- D is a diminished fifth It is the minor third, diminished fifth, and most importantly- the MINOR seventh, that makes the vii7 in harmonic minor a 'half diminished chord'. In order for it to be fully diminished, you would need a diminished seventh of the chord, making it G#,B,D,Fb. A regular vii triad would be diminished- G#,B,D A triad can never be half-diminished because it is the seventh of the chord (fourth note) that makes it half-diminished. An augmented triad would be (for example, in the key of C major, no sharps or flats) C,E,G#. If you continue the pattern of stacking major thirds, making it C,E,G#,B#, you simply have an octave on top. (B#=Cnatural) In terms of half-augmented...no, because if you had the augmented traid (C,E,G#), and a major seventh on top, it would simply be C,E,G#,B, or basically a CmajorSeventh Chord with a sharp fifth. At that point, you're really heading out of tonal harmony and hitting some pretty jazzy stuff. |