Build a dim7 a half step below your target: its root IS the leading tone, and the whole chord is the target's 5⁷b9 with the root deleted. #5°⁷ → 6- is G#dim7 → Am wearing a costume of E7b9.
hear it in jazz ballads · the romantic-chart glide
Lead-in — how players set it upStraight off 1 — the bass steps 1 → #5? No: 5 → #5 → 6 walking up.From 4 — the dim7 splits the difference on the way down.Or from 1Δ7 for the full romantic-chart glide.Follow — where it usually goes6- continues the romantic lane down to 5⁷.Or 6- pivots out: hear it as new 2- and modulate up a 5th.Descend instead: 6-, borrowed b6, 5⁷, home.
Arpeggiate the ♯5°7 straight up — all four notes lean; land any of them a half step up into the 6- world.Target tones (in C)C — lean on E (3)G#°7 — lean on B (b3) · F (bb7)Am — lean on C (b3)Half-step wiresC ↘ B · E → F · G# → A · B → C