A diminished triad or 7th chord that whose root is a half-step below a scale degree in the key other than the tonic. It serves the dominant function (leading tone) to that pitch or to a chord built on it. It is an altered chord and resolves to the pitch which is tonicized. In F major, a B diminished chord is the secondary leading tone of the note C, referred to as “seven diminished of five.”
Secondary leading tone chord
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