Music Theory's UNIVERSAL GLUE: This MAGIC Chord Connects ANY Two Chords

hello international nice to see you what if i told you that there is one chord that connects smoothly any two major or minor triads or any two seventh chord regardless how you choose those two chords if they're in the same key or not if they are connected in any way or not there is a chord that you can put in between them that makes the transition between the two of them smooth and this magic chord it's always the same chord now before i go ahead let me issue a warning this is one of those secrets of music theory that it's incredibly helpful to composers songwriters working musicians but in some musicians knowing this secret can destroy the sense of wonder and you have when you talk about music theory now personally i'm fine my own sense of wonder is fueled by understanding meaning that if there is a mystery and you explain it to me for me this is more wondrous because now i can see all the cogs and the wheels moving and for me this is better my understanding is richer i have more sense of wonder but i know that there are some people that prefer to have the mystery they get much more sense of wonder by keeping things mysterious so if this is you you've been warned okay now let's take an example i'm gonna play an a minor chord and an e flat minor chord those chords are not in any key together [Music] and yes if i keep repeating them before later you start to hear them together but what if i want to make the transition less angular and more smooth well i could do something like that see by putting an extra chord inside the transition feel different now i'm not saying that with the chord is better than without those are both two legit effects in music it's just that putting this chord between makes everything sound smoother and if you're after that that's what you need to do now i'm going to give the answer away immediately and then we see the details meaning how to do it the chord that connects any two chord is of course the diminished seventh chord so now let's see how it works and how to choose the correct diminished chord to put in between any two chords to connect them since the diminished seventh chord are symmetric i'm going to completely ignore the inharmonic notation so for instance for me the c diminished chord the e flat diminished chord the g flat diminished chord and the a diminished chord will all be notated with the notes c e flat g flat a if you are disturbed because i'm using an a and not a b flat flat when i speak about the c diminished seventh chord then have a look at the video on the top right have fun bye bye need pickers also for the reminder of this video when i say diminish i mean diminish seventh chords so there are only three diminished chords one of them has the notes c e flat g flat and a and we refer to it as c diminish if a diminished g flat diminish or a diminish the next one has the notes c sharp e g b flat and we can refer to it as c sharp diminished e diminished g diminished b flat diminished the next one has the notes d f a flat and b and we refer to it as d diminish f diminish a flat diminish b diminish so the only thing we need to do is when we have to code we need to choose one of those three chords to put in between now let's relate those three diminished chord to a c major triad the c major tried as notes c e g if i want to connect the c major triad with the c diminished chord we see that the root is in common so if i do a voice leading the c naught will stay still the e naught will go down a half step and the g note will go down a half step the a note can come either from the g or the c [Music] if now i consider this other diminished chord the c chord has now two notes in common so those two notes most likely in a voice leading will stay still and the c sharp and b flat will come from the c note [Music] since those chords have notes in common with the c major chord whenever i move to or from the c major chord into one of those diminished chord the feeling i have is kind of a sideways motion there's not any kind of functional resolving of a dissonance going from one to the other the third diminished chord is different there are no notes in common between c major and this diminished chord but this diminished chord it's very similar to a g seven flat nine g seven flat nine will have the notes g b d f and a flat so this is a g7 flat 9 without the root so whenever i play this diminished chord followed by a c major chord this feels like a 5 to 1 resolution [Music] this doesn't feel any more like a sideway motion like the previous 2 this feels more like an increase and decrease in tension the diminished chord being more tense and the c major chord being less than i can do the exact same consideration for a c minor chord and the results are practically identical the c minor chord c flat g has two notes in common with the first chord only one not in common with the cycle that's quite a weak connection but it's still good enough while the third diminished chord is similar to its five chord now this kind of consideration apply to all major or minor triads that will always be the case that after the three diminished chord one of them will have the root in common one of them will have the fifth in common and one of them will feel like the fifth of the chord whatever chord you choose seventh chord do work exactly the same in fact since seventh chord have four notes inside not just three i typically have more notes in common so the connection is even easier there now this means that there is a smooth voice leading between any chord major minor or seventh and any of those three diminished chords we can always move the notes just a little amount to go from one to the other so if i were to exaggerate i will say to connect any two chords just pick a random diminished chord anyone slam it in and you will have a smooth voice leading well sure you can do that but you have to see if it sounds the way you want i found that in general you cannot just pick a random diminished courier to pick the right one because one of them typically sounds better than the other for the aesthetic purpose you have for instance personally i like a lot functional resolutions so if i have to connect two chords i typically take the one that resolves on the second chord so for instance if i'm going between a minor and f minor [Music] i'm going to put inside here the diminished code that functionally resolves to the f this is always a diminished chord that has one note a half step below the root of the chord so the root of f minor is f a half that below it's e so i'm gonna put here an e diminished chord since there is always a smooth voice leading between a minor triad a minor and any diminished chord i can find a smooth voice leading here and what i'm going to do here is that if i spell the e diminished chord as e g a sharp c sharp i find that the fifth the e is in common the a move up to a sharp this move up to c sharp so it's quite smooth and here's what's happening [Music] again i like to put the e diminished because it gives me the sensor resolution into the second chord and i like this kind of push forward in the song but if you don't then you can put one of the other chords and get more of a sideway motion that doesn't really resolve but just slides into the next one so for instance i could have a minor a diminished f minor now this a diminish if i spell it out as a c e flat f sharp as we see has two notes in common with the a minor a and c and only one not in common with the f minor which is the c note so again i need to be a bit careful with my voice leading and that's what happens [Music] there is less sense of resolution and forward movement but it totally works if you like the sound that's the diminished chord you choose another example we tried let's go between c and b flat minor two chords that definitely are not in a key together if i want the forward movement i'm gonna pick the diminished chord with root a half step below b flat so the a diminished chord and again the a diminished chord has notes a c e flat f sharp and it has the root in common with the c chord so i'm going to make sure that this note stays still [Music] [Laughter] again the connection is quite smooth you can literally justify any movement between any two chord just sticking a diminished chord in between those with seventh chord it's even more fun because again you have more notes let's see just an example here suppose i want to go between e minor 7 to a minor 7. e minor 7 is e g b d a minor 7 it's a c e g we see that they have two notes in common g and e now i have two options i can either again choose the functional resolutions so i choose a diminished chord with the root a half step below a which is the second chord so the g sharp diminished so i have this i have e minor 7 g sharp diminished a minor 7. but here i can do something else i can notice that e minor 7 and a minor 7 have do not in common e and g and has it happen there is a diminished chord that has exactly those two notes and that's the a sharp diminished chord that has notes a sharp c sharp e and g and so i see an interesting thing the g and e naught stays still the d naught in e minor 7 goes down to c sharp then down to c and the b note in e minor 7 goes down to a sharp and down to a which is actually quite lovely as a sound and used a lot in jazz now like many other things that involve harmony and chords on guitar the voice leading is paramount you have to make sure that you lead your voices correctly and to do that you need to know your chords in several different positions and you need to know your fretboard inside out if you need help with that i recommend you check out the complete codemastery course this is not a book it's a complete video course and it's made specifically by guitar players for guitar players to help you really understand your fretboard regarding chords and harmony i'm gonna be honest immediately with you this is not a course that you want to take if you just want to read something or see a video and not do anything you need to see this course with the guitar in your hands and you need to do all the exercise and try all the examples on your guitar if you don't do the exercises in this course you don't learn anything because i don't believe in abstract music theory i don't believe in learning something and not applying i believe that music theory has a practical application for the working musician whether you're a professional or an amateur i believe that do really understand music theory you need to play play play and make music and this course teaches you how to use harmony to actually make music if you like that idea the course is for you if you don't like this idea this course is not for you if you want to check out the course just click on the link on the top right if you like this video smash that like button don't forget to subscribe and click on notification otherwise youtube will never let you know when i put up a new video and if you have any feedback suggestions comments write them down in the comments i really love hearing from you and i make new videos based on what you guys write me this is the mazda zillio of mississippi.com and until next time enjoy

Channel: MusicTheoryForGuitar

Views: 101,387

Keywords: music modulation, music modulation examples, music key modulation, diminished chords, diminished modulations, pivot chords, pivot chords for modulation, voice leading, music theory for guitar, tommaso zillio

Id: 8ozTSHuUi4c

Length: 13min 29sec (809 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 21 2020