Solo Guitar Improvisation: a new look at the diminished scale
Most books and teachers present the diminished scale in movable positions. I use this approach myself, but I find the following perspective very useful.
Click on the image on the right to read the example lesson in musical notation. (the image is an Adobe Acrobat pdf format file and will open in an Acrobat reader, from where it can be saved and/or printed)
Ex. I shows an E- diminished, scale in - the first position. This yields endless melodic and harmonic possibilities, handy open strings and can easily be extended up the neck (tone, semitone, tone etc.)
Ex. 2 shows various chords over an open E string.
Ex. 3 shows some intervallic possibilities over the same root. The same sounds can be placed over different roots to produce different chords but I will stick to just E in this lesson. (See Exploring Jazz Guitar by Jim Hall for a more detailed analysis of this idea.)
Look for melodic lines, riffs and motifs. Because of the nature of the scale these ideas will tend to sound dissonant and unresolved - which is fine for Jim Hall, Bartok and me as well, but it is also nice to resolve the dissonance.
Ex. 4 and Ex. 5 are examples of how your newly discovered diminished ideas might resolve to an F tonic type chord but remember that this is just the beginning. The same ideas with different roots will resolve to F, F minor, A flat, A flat minor, B, B minor, D, D minor tonic chords - and a lot more besides. Also, bear in mind that you can learn the similar patterns for F and F# diminished which will give you the same advantages for all twelve diminished scales.
Questions
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