Seriously: it is. There is nothing mysterious about a diminished chord. I may have missed it in B2B, because I’m following a music theory course simultaneously, but did Josh not explain that in B2B?
Try it! Just play through all root-third-fifth chords in the key of C Major, and you’ll find that the 7th chord is B-D-F, which is indeed 6 frets apart. All other root-third-fifth chords are 7 frets apart.
A diminished chord by itself is not particularly pretty – it wants to be resolved. Play a diminished chord and you’ll find that you will want to instinctively move up to the next fret and play a major chord… or maybe move two frets down for a minor chord.
Josh didn’t get into the diminished chord, he pointed out the diminished chord in module 5 “Diatonic Chords”, but said we are not going to talk about those now. I don’t recall any further discussion after that module.
I think most of the people who took B2B are interested in eventually playing with others, whether it be just informal jam sessions or joining a band/gigging. So an emphasis on this would be great, like more advanced instruction on how to blend with a band and create baselines in context. I personally would love more advanced slap instruction, but I know that’s not for everyone so I wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t included.
I was thinking about how the second course could have a different structure than B2B. For B2B, the linear progression of the modules made sense for a beginner course, especially since the concepts and material kept building off of past lessons. As has been mentioned in the thread already, when it comes to an intermediate course, individuals might have different preferences and the topics might become more specialized and not depend on each other as much. Something like a “learning tree” where users can explore different independent branches might be a good format. Just a thought!
Also, I know how to read sheet music since I played the trombone as a child, but I have been using tabs for playing bass so far since I don’t have the fretboard memorized yet. I am a big believer in the value of reading sheet music over tabs, so I think this should be an emphasis for the second course. The tabs are a distraction for anyone who is trying to learn to read sheet music/memorize the fretboard. This is tricky though because many students may not want to learn sheet music (and even though I think it’s valuable, it’s definitely not mandatory), so they will want tabs displayed during lessons. If there was a way for students to select whether they see tabs or sheet music during lessons that would solve the problem, but that would probably be difficult to setup. Maybe one “branch” of the learning tree or 1-2 modules could focus on reading sheet music and learning the fretboard and not include tabs for people who are interested in that.
Just my two cents! I personally don’t have a lot of specific interests, I just love playing bass! So whatever is offered in the next course, I’m sure I would enjoy it and find it valuable.
That wasn’t referring to diminished chords in general, just the diminished fifth chord you get with the diatonic major vii chord (which in terms of major scale modes is known as Locrian mode). It is almost useless in most (western, current) music because the root-fifth interval is so fundamental.
He didn’t want to discuss it there presumably because it’s (a) not a beginner topic and (b) not super useful anyway other than as something to know to avoid
I did not cover diminished chords! Kept it to major and minor since diminished and augmented are relatively rare in most styles of music.
But yes, nothing mysterious, just a root, third and a fifth, like any other basic triad. They just sound weird and scary.
Just to clarify, it’s only a 6 fret span if you’re playing it as a closed position triad chord, with all three notes ringing. But if you’re just playing one note at a time, you can play it all in position, i.e. B on 2nd fret A string, D on the 5th fret, F on the 3rd fret of the D string.
The fact that the absolute best can get away with it is fundamental to why a lot of us poke fun at jazz, because a lot of people who can’t get away with it think they can by example
Haha, fair. I certainly didn’t mean to diminish Holdsworth’s augmented harmonic vocabulary.
Augmented makes a great V chord, i.e. G+ (Gaug) to C major, because
D# → E
B → C
G → G
You get two half step resolutions, which = yummy.
Diminished mostly function as passing chords with chromatic root movement, so you can try something like Cmaj - C#dim - Dm - G, which in roman numerals I’d call I - viidim of ii - ii - V.
Quite frankly… I fully expect (and hope) I’ll never “get it all figured out”. I am counting on each answer that I find to raise more questions.
It’s listening to stellar composers, and stellar improvisers*, that makes you aware you have a longer way to go than you’ve got time to live… and the older I get, the more I realise that this is actually a comforting thought. It means that, until your dying day, you can listen to music in awe and wonder, like you did as a child.
*) not ‘stellar’ as in “technically gifted”, but as in “capable of creating beautiful music on the fly”.
I think he was just using that to illustrate the two half-step differences between the chords, and since G is the normal major V for C, Gaug gives that as a V-I transition when resolving from Gaug to Cmaj.
