Cool Jazz Tricks #1

Superimposition with Diminished 7th chord in Jazz Improvisation, with video and thorough analysis. 

Check out this video of me improvising over the changes of popular jazz bebop tune “Au Privave”
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXgd3hh76oQ]

Observe 1m21s of the video, what I was doing there is this:

THE TRICK – Superimpose a Diminished 7th chord half step above the dominant 7th chord of the key.

In this case, the turnaround is basically in the key of F. Thus the dominant 7th chord would be C7. The diminished 7th chord a half step up from it would be the Dbdim7 chord. 

One very cool thing about this particular diminished 7th chord, is that all chord tones is either a step or a half step away from one of the chord tone of the tonic chord it is approaching. As shown in this diagram.

I also spotted the great jazz guitarist Pat Metheney applying the same trick. Here’s a cutout from my

Transcription of Pat Metheney on “And Then I Knew”

Take away a few passing tones, and you will see a Dbdim7 chord before the Fmaj9.

This is part 1 of a series of posts themed Cool Jazz Tricks. Stay tune for more, or subscribe to the Pianologist RSS feed to be updated regularly.

Until then, Have fun and Enjoy.. 😀