V-I Chord Progressions with Diminished

Passing Chords
PROGRESSION V-I

KEYS C, A

PASSING CHORD dim7

POSITION ON THE NECK Open (A#dim7), Movable (Gdim7)

APPLICATION Intro, turnarounds, V-I transitions in the songs

COMPLEXITY Medium

In this post I’d like to show a useful V-I guitar chord progression in the keys of C and
A. These progressions use very nice diminished chords, A#dim7 in the open position
with the root on the fifth string, and movable Gdim7 with the root note on the sixth
string. By using these chords and chord progressions you might significantly improve
your accompaniment for the songs having V – I transitions and sound more ‘jazzy’
The video below shows that progression in many keys often used in the songs
(C,D,E,A,G etc.), but in the text below I’ll show the tabs for a couple of cases only.

V-I progression in the key of C

In the key of C, the edge chords in the V-I chord progression are G and C. C is the
first note of C Major scale (C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C), and it deserves to be called The
Number I (Latin). G note sits on the fifths position of that scale and is labeled V. So,
the progression V-I just means transition from G Major to C Major chord, with extra
passing chords in between.

If I add three more chords between those two, I’ll get a nice sounding sequence
showed on Example 1:

Example 1. G-C Guitar Chord Progression with transitional chords between them.
Diminished chords
The diminished chord A#dim7 with the root note on the fifth string is very useful as a
passing chord in many other ascending and descending chord progressions. In this
specific case, it’s a chord played in open position. I would recommend to take this
chord into your chord library and practice it both separately and in relationships with
other chords in progression. It’s a good chord for advancing from the ‘6-chords’
player to ‘jazzy’ guitar player level

V-I progression in the key of A, 3-note chords

Example 2 shows a ‘lean’ version of the same progression using just 3-notes chords in
they key of A.
 Example 2. E-A 3-notes Guitar Chord Progression

V-I progression in the key of A, 4-note chords

Example 3. And, finally, the 4-note V-I chord progression in the same key is just
below:
 Example 3. E-A 4-notes Guitar Chord Progression
In this and in the previous example, the bass moves along the 6th string. The Gdim7 is
another example of the diminished chord but at this time this is a diminished chord
with the root note on the 6th string. Also, the E7 chord with G# root (E7/G#) is not
very usual way to play a dominant seventh chord, so usually I play three-note E7
chord instead (as in example 2).

You can download the tabs from the Resources page or from the direct link below:

V-I Guitar Chord Progressions in Different Keys (pdf)