Half Diminished chords are one of the trickiest chord qualities for developing jazz musicians. Also known as Minor7b5 chords, their structure, sound, and very nature are tough to grasp for just about everyone, so they tend to present more of a challenge than major, minor, or dominant chords.
So what makes half diminished chords more difficult than these other basic chord qualities? Why can’t they be as simple as a major chord to think about? And what is it about them that makes them harder to hear and play?
Well it mostly goes back to how we’re nearly all introduced to a half diminished chord from popular jazz education today, which of course is via a scale.
The very first thing we’re told about these chords is that they take the esoteric Locrian Mode, and that if we simply learn this mode, we’ll be equipped for half diminished chords.
No overview, no context, no sound (!!)…just mix up the notes from this scale over half diminished chords and you’re good to go.
Unfortunately, this won’t get you very far…but it gets worse…
Not only do many improvisers get started with Locrian, but in typical Chord-Scale fashion, we’re also offered several other scale choices to confuse the matter, giving you three scales in total for half diminished:
The Locrian Scale
The Locrian#2 Scale
The Melodic Minor Scale from the 3rd of the chord (Bb)
And this is probably the point that many of you are at now…
You’ve got your Locrian, Locrian#2, and your Melodic Minor Scales all lined up for a half diminished chord, but you’re still having trouble making an actual musical statement over them.
So what do you do?
If you haven’t realized this already, more scale choices do NOT help you understand how to play over a chord.
And while all of this scale information is not wrong and is actually beneficial to know…it’s very incomplete.
So today, we’re going to fill in your gaps of knowledge when it comes to half diminished chords, looking at how we can supplement your theory knowledge with a working model of how a pro approaches playing over these chords, giving you meaningful techniques that you can start using right now!
But first, a quick refresher on the sound you’re playing over…
Half diminished chords: A Quick Overview
Before we go further, here’s a quick overview of half diminished chords…
When derived straight from functional harmony, a half diminished chord has the same lower structure chord tones as a minor chord, with the slight modification of a b5 rather than a natural 5, hence the other name for a half diminished chord, Minor7b5…
But unlike a standard minor chord, its upper structure chord tones, the 9-11-13, contain a b9 and a b13.
When you put all of these chord tones (vertical structure) into a scalar form (linear structure), they resemble the Locrian Scale…
So Locrian is not just some weird mode, it’s simply the notes of the actual chord, reordered into a scale: the actual chord and Locrian are really just two perspectives of the same information.
Ok, so what does a half diminished chord sound like? Here’s a simple voicing with just the root in the bass, and the 3rd, 5th, and 7th on top…
Although basic, these chord tones are the ones primarily used in a half diminished chord voicing.
As we’ll touch on later, the 9th of a half diminished chord, which is a b9 coming from harmony, is similar to the 11th on a major chord – it clashes within a chord voicing, creating unwanted dissonance.
To remedy this, like the 11th on major, it’s often raised, adding this natural 9 sound to the voicing…
Keep in mind, this natural 9 is the #2 from the scale that jazz educators talk about, the Locrian#2. As we’ll get to later, I think of this sound as a natural 9 because rather than a b9, you’re changing it to a natural 9.
The half diminished chord (and Locrian for that matter) contains a b9, so calling it #2 is a bit odd to me, but if you prefer to think of it that way, that’s perfectly okay. Always think of things the way they make sense to YOU.
Alright, that’s enough theory. Let’s get into the concepts that Coltrane uses to expand his vocabulary and melodic freedom on half diminished chords…
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