Exploring Booker's Use of Diminished Chords

So let's look at something else that Booker uses that I really dig , his use of diminished chords and how he employs them.

Example: Goodnight Irene

For example, he uses them in the intro to Goodnight Irene and throughout that tune.

It sounds a bit like this, and you can hear it has a very distinctive sound. He also uses it at the end of Pixie, for instance.

Analysis of Diminished Chords

So let's analyze what he's doing there.

• If we go back to Goodnight Irene, this is in the key of D flat.
• He's essentially arriving at the D flat chord.
• He does that through a kind of resolution, specifically a D flat diminished seventh resolving to the D flat chord.

This is something you hear throughout blues and boogie; it's all about that seventh to the diminished seventh and then back again.

Breakdown of Goodnight Irene

Let's look at it again in D flat in Goodnight Irene. The actual harmony he uses is:

• In the left hand, there's that "crunch" , the harmonic sort of crunch.
• He sometimes plays that with anticipation, which provides a rhythmic movement essential to New Orleans music.

Again, on the A flat, it often starts from fifths on the minor third and the diminished chord. Then it resolves back to the main chord.

• On chord four, he might preface this with a little run up rather than down.
• He might run up again with all those anticipations in there, stemming from that Jelly Roll Morton approach.

Exciting Harmonic Context

What I find interesting about this harmony is that it's not simply a diminished resolving to the tonic. It almost resembles a 2-5-1 progression.

• It's like a 2 with a flat 9 to A,
• Leading to a sharp V7 chord, with a sharp 5 resolved to the tonic.

This creates an exciting harmonic context, central to New Orleans music.

Application in Other Tunes

You might have something like this: that 2-5 movement, which Booker encapsulates in that riff that just sounds really hip.

Again, he uses this in Pixies and many of his other tunes. So, do listen out for that lick if you want to incorporate it in your playing.

Example: Junko Partner

For example, let's look at Junko Partner.

You could use it in that tune in the key of G. This diminished sound starts on the flat five:

• Starting on the flat fifth (relative to D flat) in G.

So, when playing Junko Partner, you could do something like this, starting on the flat five:

• And then on the fourth, it begins on the flat five.

Putting It All Together

Let's put that in context:

• There it was on the five, followed by some other stuff.

So, yeah, have fun trying to incorporate that into different tunes!

You could also throw it into Tipitina as well, which has a slightly different rhythmic context, but it's the same movement.

Conclusion

There you go! There's another little Booker idea that you can use in your tunes.