Idea/lesson sort of: Half whole scale application

[Joe_Reynolds]

I'm just showing the potential of a scale that has little use for most people, i'm sure a lot of you are guilty of only using this scale on 7b9 chords. People need to realise this wonderful scale is truly...Awesome


Half Whole Demonstration - YouTube

[FatJeff]

Quite interesting. Certainly not the normal sound I associate with the H-W diminished scale! Almost sounds like a Leo Brouwer study.

[JakeAcci]

Cmaj triad with b9 #9 3 #9 riff

Ebmaj triad with b9 #9 3 #9 riff

Gb triad, Edim7, Eb7, Ddim7

I get that the notes used are coming from HW, but I hear it as a theme on C, a theme on Eb, then a I VI7b9 VI7 in Gb. Cool experiment.

I'm relatively new to HW/WH scales, but some things I've found worthy of interest beyond their use over dominant chords:

Assuming C WH, triads over a bass note:
B/C, Abm/C
B/C is a cool way to play a Cdim7...,playing a D/Eb structure can also work as a Cdim7, as can the other two obvious options, but I guess I hear these first two better.

On a diminished seventh, any note a half step before a chord tone is present in this scale. I like the sound.

for C HW scale, triads A, Eb, and F# are present...interesting to mix them, melodically, for a line over a dominant chord, as opposed to running the scale in 2nds or thirds. Also A/Bb, C/Db, Eb/E, F#/G can all imply C dominant. Arpeggios of those four note structures are also a different way to approach soloing over a dominant chord.

A couple of pentatonics I like that I got from the HW/WH scale:

b9 3 5 6 b7

for C you could think of it as Edim7 plus the note A. You could also use it as any diminished seventh chord plus a one tone that's a half step below a chord tone of the dim7.

or (lil hipper I think) :

b9 #9 3 5 6 - for C you could think of it the arpeggio of VI7 (A7) including a b5, D#.