Half-diminished chords

Last month, I looked at using diminished seventh chords as pivot chords to change or modulate to a different key. To give them their proper title, the chords I was using are also known as fully-diminished sevenths, but if we delve deeper into the seventh chord’s family tree, there’s another, closely-related chord in the diminished family with a whole other range of uses, and that’s the half-diminished seventh.

Also commonly b known as the ‘minor seven flat five’ (m7 5) , the half-diminished chord is a type of seventh chord with a particular structure that makes it a pretty useful passing chord. Described as being ‘intensely expressive’ by theorists, it’s found a lot in