It’s that time of year—are you ready to add a little spooky flavor to your lines? Regardless of what time of the year it is, diminished phrases can really add some interest to your playing. 

Not only will these lines sound really great over diminished and dominant 7 chords, they will also be really great foundational exercises that you can use to improve your chops as a player.

But before we get into these patterns, make sure you check out our resource, 15 Exercises for Diminished Scale Technique, as well as our YouTube video, 5 Wicked Patterns with the Diminished Scale.

And with that, let’s jump in!

Diminished scale exercise 1

Let’s take a look at our first exercise.

So what’s going on here? Essentially, we take the C half-whole diminished scale and we’re building a diminished triad from every single scale tone. All of the resulting triads contain pitches that are completely diatonic to the scale. Then, we’ll simply go up and down each triad when ascending the scale.

Then, when we descend, we’ll do it all backward—going down and up with each triad.

That was our easiest exercise today … let’s keep moving!

Diminished scale exercise 2

Alright, let’s check out our second exercise.

Now what do we have here? This pattern is based on stacking fully diminished seventh chords on each scale degree of the C half-whole diminished scale, which again leaves us with pitches that are all diatonic to this scale. Then each of these diatonic diminished seventh chords are alternating in specific variations. The first half of each measure is 1, b3, bb7 (which we’ll just call 6), and b5. From here we’ll voice lead up with a half step into the next chords, with a new variation: b5. 1, b3, 6 (bb7). Then from there, we’ll dip down a perfect fifth onto the root of the third diatonic diminished seventh chord, returning us to that first variation.

In our descending version, two different alternating variations emerge. The first one is 1, 6 (bb7), b3, and b5. The second is 6 (bb7), b3, b5, and 1. Then from there, we’ll voice lead down a whole step interval and continue these alternating variations throughout the rest of the diatonic diminished seventh chords. 

Diminished scale exercise 3

We’re on to the third exercise already—great work! 

Wow—this one is tritone city. Again these are all diatonic diminished seventh chords within the C half-whole diminished scale, but with the consistent variation throughout, 1, b5, b3, 6 (bb7), there’s a tritone between every two notes. Another way to think of this exercise is to play a set of two tritones a minor third apart, then just go up to the next scale and play another set just like this. Then you’ll go to the next scale and continue from there.

For the descending version, it’s the exact same idea, just inverted. Our pattern is now 1, b5, 6 (bb7), b3.

Diminished scale exercise 4

Fourth exercise—you’re almost there!

So if you listen to Nathan play this exercise in our YouTube video, 5 Wicked Patterns with the Diminished Scale, you may find it familiar. It sounds eerily like the Endless Stairs from Super Mario 64 … so that’s a fun bonus.

Anyway, checking out the ascending version, we’ll start off on the root for each diatonic diminished seventh chord. Then we’ll play one diatonic note up, in this case a half step. Then we’ll shift this two-note cell up a tritone, repeating it up a minor third, then we’ll do it again on each scale degree.

Then on the way down, we have the same idea, but instead of moving up a diatonic note, we’ll move down a diatonic note. This ends up being a whole step interval this time. We’ll take this two-note cell and move it down a tritone and do all this again down a minor third, repeating this idea on each scale degree.

Diminished scale exercise 5

You made it! Here’s our final exercise. This one isn’t going to be easy, but it’ll sound great for sure.

Let’s break it down. We start on the root of the C half-whole diminished scale, but this is actually acting as a chromatic approach tone to the Db diminished triad, which is the second diatonic diminished triad of the scale. A little deceptive, right? Every scale tone is really going to be a chromatic approach note to the diminished triad a half step directly above it. Then on the way down, every scale tone will be a diatonic approach note above a diminished triad. You could also just see each of these cells as a descending dominant seventh chord.

Well that’s all for today—hope you enjoyed these spicy diminished lines. If you want to learn more, make sure to check out our YouTube video, 5 Wicked Patterns with the Diminished Scale, along with our resource 15 Exercises for Diminished Scale Technique here on jazzlessonvideos.com.

See you next time!