Diminished Vocab
For Dominant 7th Chords
By Chris Standring |
Free
guitar lessons from GuitarMadeSimple.com |
Let's
look at the diminished scale using the linear concept so we can
incorporate the arpeggio and scale into our melodic lines.
The make up of the diminished chord allows us to use the same
chord shape for 4 different chord names. A diminished chord is
made up of: Root, b3, b5 and 6th (otherwise known as diminished
7th). That means that each interval is exactly a minor 3rd away
from each other. If we took the root as A, the chord tones would
be: A,C,Eb,Gb. If C was the root note our chord tones would be:
C,Eb,Gb,A. If Eb was the root, our chord tones would be: Eb, Gb,
A, C. Finally if Gb was the root note our chord tones would be:
Gb, A, C, Eb. The minor 3rd intervals keep going up until the
end of the 4 note sequence and start over again.
This means that the diminished scale is quite difficult to really
hear as there seems to be no final note to feel comfortable about
when you get to it. There are 4 final notes! However, this also
means that there are only 3 scales to learn as opposed to 12.
The diminished scale can be thought of as quite simply, the notes
of the diminished chord with a leading note placed before each
chord tone. The scale then looks like this:

Every dominanth 7th b9 chord
has a diminished chord within it. This allows us to utilize the
diminished scale when playing over chord 5. It also gives us nice
stepwise resolutions when we finally get to the 1 chord. Look
at the following 2, 5, 1 progressions and study the diminished
lines when they appear over chord 5. Have fun!
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