Here are the stats on our friend, Mr. Diminished seventh chord:

• He’s located in a minor scale on the seventh degree;

• The distance between each of his chord notes is three semitones;

• He’s very much at home in the Romantic era, although he’s generally comfortable in most eras and genres of music;

• He’s prone to jealousy over all the attention that dominant seventh chords receive. On occasion, he has been caught muttering to himself, “dominant seventh this and dominant seventh that”, followed by a profanity.

By adjusting any of the notes of a diminished seventh chord downwards by a semitone, a dominant seventh is created. Therein lies the modulation power of a diminished seventh!

Here’s a list of three diminished seventh chords. Left (displayed below) and right hand fingerings for these chords are 5, 4, 2, 1 and 1, 2, 4, 5 respectively. Some composers might find it necessary to occasionally substitute a tired fourth finger for a third finger, so that their hand doesn’t get overtired.

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