The diminished scale is one of jazz improvisers’ most useful and versatile tools. However, many musicians resist learning how this eight note scale works (and how you can use it to bring color and tension to your jazz solos).
It has been covered on LJS before, but we will try to offer additional perspectives on thinking about and using this symmetrical scale.
You might already know a bit about the diminished scale, but even jazz musicians familiar with the diminished sound might not yet grasp the full potential of this unique scale. Likewise, you might already know how to play a diminished scale—but do you know where these scales come from, how they are theoretically derived, and their unique properties?
That’s what we’ll talk about in this post.
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Table of Contents
What’s the history of the diminished scale?
Diminished-like scales and other symmetric scales have been used in non-Western music for centuries (perhaps even millennia). Though there are a few freak incidences of diminished scales in earlier periods of European “classical” music history, diminished scales began to appear more formally as a distinct musical idea in Western music during the so-called “Romantic Era” in the 19th century.
By the early 1900s, the idea of diminished scales began to be formally theorized and integrated into the musician’s toolbox. During the first half of the 20th century, composers such as Bela Bartok and Igor Stravinsky began to use the diminished scale in their compositions extensively. In the jazz idiom, many improvisers were aware of and used the diminished scale by the Bebop era.
What is a diminished scale, and how are diminished scales derived?
The diminished scale is a special scale that accompanies a fully diminished 7th chord. This scale is sometimes called the “octatonic” scale because it has eight notes (or eight tones), as opposed to other scales like the diatonic modes (or church modes), which have seven notes, or pentatonic scales, which have five notes.
Just to review, a diminished 7th chord is constructed by stacking minor thirds on top of each other until you build a 7th chord. Here’s a C diminished 7th chord:
Diminished Scales Overview: Three Ways To Think of Diminished Scales
1. Combine two minor tetrachords a tritone apart (a tetrachord is a 4-note scale, and a minor tetrachord is basically the first four notes of the Dorian minor mode, so for example, combine the first four notes of a C- scale with the first four notes of an F#- scale) to get an eight note diminished scale.
2. Play alternating half-steps and whole steps. Whether you start with a whole step or a half step will determine which of the two scales you are playing (more on that later).
3. Combine two fully diminished seventh chords a whole step apart. For example, combine C(dim)7 and D(dim)7. These diminished chords a whole step apart offer chord players a great way to harmonize diminished scale ideas.
To learn more about fully-diminished chords, check out our diminished chord workshop.
Two Modes of the Diminished Scale: The Whole-Half Diminished Scale and the Half-Whole Diminished Scale
A diminished scale’s starting interval determines whether it is a whole-half diminished scale or a half-whole diminished scale. With diminished scales, the sequence of intervals repeats after a minor third interval pattern—it’s either a half step, then a whole step, or a whole step, then a half step.
This creates two diminished scale modes, each with its own uses—the whole-half diminished scale and the half-whole diminished scale. As the names imply, the whole-half diminished scale starts with a whole step followed by a half-step, and the half-whole diminished scale starts with a half-step followed by a whole step.
See below:
The half-whole scale is also known as the dominant diminished scale. The dominant diminished scale works well over various dominant chords because of the various dominant chord tones represented in the scale.
What are the unique properties of the diminished scale?
Diminished scales are symmetrical scales. This means they can only be transposed into another “key” a limited number of times before they repeat themselves—before you get the same scale with the exact same pitches, just starting on a different note.
Since they are scales of “limited transposition,” you can’t generate many modes from diminished scales like you can with an asymmetric scale, such as the major scale (also called the Ionian mode).
As it turns out, there are only three unique diminished scales.
If you don’t believe me, try building these scales yourself and see how many unique scales you can generate before you wind up with a scale with the same notes as the one you started on, just played in a different order.
A D diminished scale has the same notes as an F diminished scale, an Ab diminished scale, and a B diminished scale. This is due to the symmetry of the diminished 7th chord.
If your diminished scales start on D, F, Ab, or B, they will be the same scale. Based on the diminished cycle, playing a diminished scale on a C will be the same as Eb diminished, F# diminished, and A diminished. Likewise, if you play an E diminished, it will be the same as if you were playing G diminished, Bb diminished, or Db diminished.
This is why there are only three diminished scales:
- [C-Eb-Gb-A] are all the same.
- [Db-E-G-Bb] are all the same.
- [D-F-Ab-B] are all the same.
Diminished scales have a lot of built-in major triads and 7th chords.
Many useful and familiar-sounding harmonic structures are embedded within the diminished scale. One of the best ways to tap into the “diminished sound” is to play melodic patterns based on the internal structures of the diminished scale, as opposed to just running up and down the scale in stepwise motion.
There are:
- major triads
- dominant 7th chords
- dominant 7th (b5) chords
- minor 7th chords
- minor 7th (b5) chords
Building chords from the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th scale degrees of the diminished scale can give you many different chords.
There are also fully diminished 7th chords you can build off every note of the diminished scale, and there are diminished major 7th chords you can build off the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th scale degrees.
Here’s a visualization:
There are a few other types of seventh chords you can extract from the diminished scale—see if you can find them for yourself:
- diminished major 7th
- minor (major 7) b5
- major 7 (sus 4) #5
- major 7 (sus 4) b5
Check out our post on the
How do you use diminished scales?
Here are some of the best applications of the diminished scale:
1. Over a fully diminished 7th chord with the same root:
2. Over a dominant 7th (b9) chord, starting the diminished scale a half-step above the root (also sometimes called the “auxiliary diminished” scale or the “b9” scale, this is similar but not identical to the altered scale (see below).
Note that the diminished dominant scale has a natural 13, not a b13, and it has the perfect 5th above the root – which is not the case with the altered scale):
3. Over a minor II-V7 with the diminished scale starting on the root of the II-7(b5) chord (resolving to the diatonic Dorian mode on the I-chord).
Note that one diminished scale works nicely over both the II-7(b5) and the V7(b9) chords:
4. Over a pedal point (any diminished scale will work, but most often, the chord with the same root as the pedal note works best):
Finally, here is a very useful “insider” tip: diminished scales work best starting with the whole step first when playing ascending or descending stepwise melodies over dominant 7th (b9) chords.
This is because it allows the chord tones and the “colorful” notes to fall on the beat when using the diminished scale over dominant 7th (b9) chords. Most importantly, it makes resolving into the next chord easier and more natural.
For example:
The other “Diminished Sounding” Scale That Isn’t A True Diminished Scale
We mentioned the altered scale in the previous section. The altered scale, the 7th mode of the melodic minor or jazz minor scale, starts off like a half-whole diminished scale with alternating half-steps and whole-steps.
However, after the 4th scale degree, there are only whole steps, breaking the diminished pattern.
Master The Diminished Scale And Supercharge Your Jazz Playing—Join the Learn Jazz Standards Inner Circle
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