The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

    User Info Menu

    Hi all,


    I wanted to try my hand at filming a short little jazz guitar lesson. This video focuses on the octatonic scale (as I like to refer to it), or otherwise known as the half/whole or diminished scale. It's a simple idea where you build a scale based on alternating half and whole steps.





    In this video I'll also be explaining a bit about one way that I like to incorporate the scale into dominant harmony passages. It's pretty simple to apply in context and I think is a great way to get into playing some lines that sound a little less diatonic.


    Anyway, I realize it's not an incredibly detailed analysis of the half/whole scale and application of it, but my hope is that I've been able to boil down the theory into something simple that most people can grasp onto relatively quickly.


    Hope you enjoy.

  2.  

    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

    User Info Menu

    Thanks - nice straightforward lesson!

    It was actually very timely for me as for some reason I've never settled on a fingering for the half-whole scale - when I want to play that sound I tend either to look at the fingerboard and count 1s and 2s or go up in minor thirds on a string and then skip kind of diagonally up to the next string.

    Unsurprisingly, this usually makes me stutter, So having a simple default fingering in mind seems like a good thing!

    More generally, it's amazing how often we (I) box ourselves (myself) into a corner and then after a long time the simplest little push or insight can get one out of it.

  4. #3

    User Info Menu

    the diminished scale can be a bit confusing to many players (all instruments)

    some pointers that Joe Diorio uses in his teachings

    There are ONLY THREE diminished scales: C Db D

    the formula for each is also known as the WHOLE HALF scale

    C D Eb F Gb Ab A B C

    now many say there is a Half Whole dim scale as well...NOT REALLY

    If you start the C dim scale on the 8th tone--B it can indeed be called a B Half Whole dim scale ..but is it truly a different scale that the C dim scale

    lets see

    B C D Eb F Gb Ab A B

    NOTE: it IS the C WholeHalf scale..but it starts on the B note !

    now you have cut the confusiion of diminished scales in half..

    Now there are many chords embedded in this wonderful scale and even some cool scales also


    all the following chords can be moved in minor thirds...

    F7#9 Ab7#9 B7#9 D7#9 - all these can be a flat 9 as well
    Fmi 7 (and Fmi7b5) again these can be moved in minor thirds..

    explore there are many more !!

    AND

    TWO Tri-Tone Scales (hexatonic scales) and chords embedded in it

    D Eb Gb Ab A C -- D7b5 / Ab7b5

    F Gb A B C Eb -- F7b5 / B7b5

    lots of very cool licks when mixed together-experiment

    hope this helps

  5. #4

    User Info Menu

    The tricky thing is that diminished scales are used phrase wise such that as likely as not your starting note choice will be such that the second note might be a whole step or a half step.The diminished version of half-whole and whole-half are simply indicating whether the "middle notes" between the diminished chords tones are the lower (half-whole) or upper (whole-half).This means that for any diminished chord, the "middle notes" form an additional chord, two in fact corresponding to the H-W and W-H versions. That makes three potential arpeggios capturing all the notes, and one could also blend to form a diminished scale that includes combinations of H-W and W-H.This inherent chromatic relation means sometimes you can play a diminished scale followed by that same scaled shifted chromatically over some chord harmony changes.Take the tune "wave"...D96 to A#m6#5 with GdimWH scale, then Am7->D9 with F#dimWH scale played through both chords.

  6. #5

    User Info Menu

    I'm coming around to the half-whole sound. It's a bit like truffle oil. That natural 13 on the dominant, esp going to minor. For a while I used to avoid it, focus on the more elegant and melodic options on diminished chords and altered dominants. It's almost obnoxious, draws attention to itself. Not a vanilla sound. Very bold, almost vulgar.

  7. #6

    User Info Menu

    whole-half sounds best on non leading tone dim chords, e.g. #IVo7 or bIIIo7. Bill Evans often uses it like this, as does Wes, although they tend to use it as a LNT pattern on dim 7 chord tones.

  8. #7

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    ...a LNT pattern on dim 7 chord tones.
    I searched and searched...

    Leave No Trace camping
    Linear no-threshold model for ionizing radiation
    Latvijas Neatkar?g? Telev?zija, TV station
    Lean NOx trap, an NOx adsorber
    A computer language descended from E-LOTOS

    None of those sound right on dim7 chord tones to me.
    Help an old ear player out... what is an LNT pattern?

  9. #8

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by pauln
    I searched and searched...

    Leave No Trace camping
    Linear no-threshold model for ionizing radiation
    Latvijas Neatkar?g? Telev?zija, TV station
    Lean NOx trap, an NOx adsorber
    A computer language descended from E-LOTOS

    None of those sound right on dim7 chord tones to me.
    Help an old ear player out... what is an LNT pattern?
    Altered Dominant Made Simple - Octatonic Scale Lower neighbour tone

  10. #9

    User Info Menu

    Quote Originally Posted by christianm77
    Altered Dominant Made Simple - Octatonic Scale Lower neighbour tone
    My goodness!
    There's PT, NT, UNT, LNT, UNTg, LNTg, DN, INT, APP, ESC, ANT, SYN, SUS, RET, etc...?
    * lower case "g" suffix indicates the German interpretation that does not restrict the definition to a whole step but includes half steps