Does A DIMINISHED 7th Chord Have A Root? [Q&A]

Tommaso Zillio

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Are there chords without root?

Actually no: for any set of notes that you can pick, you can find that at least one of them is more ‘fundamental’ than the others…

…and we call that note “root note”.

Now, if you got your coffee this morning and you were paying attention, you may noticed that I totally hedged my answer.

(Reread it. See if you can spot it…)

Found it?

I said “at least” one note is more fundamental than the others.

That is, we can always find “at least” one root…

…the trouble is that we can find more than one root!

And like that saying that too many cooks spoil the soup… having too many roots can make for a pretty weird chord.

So what kind of chord has more than one root?

I’m showing you one in the video below… and you probably know it already!

In this video we also answer:

• You had a live class, what?
• Can we call this scale lydian #6?
• Is this the right way to look at exotic scales?
• Can you say "I vant to drink your blood’? (<– I take requests!)
• I use tabs. Should I memorize the notes on the fretboard?

Come for the multiple-root chord. Stay for the Count Dracula impression:

And if you want to know more on how to use diminished 7th chords in your music… here’s a simple, nifty trick that you can learn in few minutes and makes everything sound better.

(no seriously… don’t take my word for it, see the comments on the video…)

As for memorizing the notes on the fretboard (as I mentioned in the video above)… it’s much simpler than you think…

… but only if you do it in the right way! Otherwise is just an endless struggle!

So here’s a video that shows you how to learn the notes on your fretboard in 5 minutes a day"

If instead (as I mention in the first video) you are interested in scales and modes… then you want to have a look at the definitive course in learning, applying, and making music with scales and modes on guitar: Master of the Modes guitar course