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Diminished

The video demonstrates how guitarist Scott Henderson uses the diminished scale to create interesting sounds over a static minor seventh chord progression. It shows examples of playing the diminished scale across different string pairs using intervals like sixths and one-fret patterns. It also discusses incorporating triads from within the diminished scale. The goal is to provide unexpected notes that create tension but also resolve musically back to more inside ideas. Focused practice of the techniques in confined areas of the fretboard is recommended to fully understand the scale's potential for colorful improvisation.

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Mauro Bianchini
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
34 views

Diminished

The video demonstrates how guitarist Scott Henderson uses the diminished scale to create interesting sounds over a static minor seventh chord progression. It shows examples of playing the diminished scale across different string pairs using intervals like sixths and one-fret patterns. It also discusses incorporating triads from within the diminished scale. The goal is to provide unexpected notes that create tension but also resolve musically back to more inside ideas. Focused practice of the techniques in confined areas of the fretboard is recommended to fully understand the scale's potential for colorful improvisation.

Uploaded by

Mauro Bianchini
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Intro

0:00
this video is going to show you how the
0:01
Great Scott Henderson uses the
0:03
diminished scale to create some really
0:05
beautiful outside sounds over a static
0:07
minor seventh chord progression I'll not
0:10
only show you what to play but I'll also
0:12
give you some strategies to make it
0:14
sound musical now I feel like many of
0:16
the guitarists that I've taught over the
0:17
years a really common issue that crops
0:20
up time and again is feeling like you're
0:22
playing is stuck in a bit of a musical
0:24
Wasteland often repeating the same ideas
0:26
and quite frankly you're getting a bit
0:29
bored with some of the lines that you're
0:30
playing now a great way to prevent your
0:33
ideas from flatlining when you're
0:34
improvising over a static chord
0:36
progression is to play something The
0:38
Listener isn't expecting so some outside
0:40
notes the jar against the chords can
0:43
create some really nice tension
0:45
one of the examples we'll be doing just
0:47
this and exploring the sound of the a
0:49

RE
diminished scale over a static a minor 7
0:51
backing my name is Steve allsworth let's
0:53
Dive In back in 1988 long before the
Why the W/H Diminished works over a m7
0:56
internet and streaming Scott introduces
0:58
instructional video jazz fusion
1:01
improvisation on VHS now this was
1:04
groundbreaking at the time and I'd still
1:05
regard this as one of the finest
1:07
instructional videos that's out there
1:09
now this has since been repackaged into
1:11
the DVD Jazz Rock Mastery and I've left
1:13
some links down below this included his
1:16
harmonic rules for improvising where he
1:18
laid out all of his scales arpeggios
1:21
Triads and modes over literally any
1:24
chord type now as you work your way down
1:26
through the list Scott introduces more
1:28
outside sounds and this is where you'll
1:30
find the whole half diminished scale as
1:32
a possibility over a minor seventh chord
1:35
now this isn't something that you
1:36
typically expect to hear over a minor
1:38
seventh chord in fact if you look in
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most Theory manuals it says that you'd
1:42
only expect to hear a whole half
1:44

RE
diminished scale over a diminished
1:46
seventh chord so why the diminished
1:48
scale
1:49
well one of the ways that we can view
1:50
this is as a variation of the Dorian
1:53
scale which is a common Choice over a
1:55
static Minor 7 Vamp this is because
1:57
there are a lot of common notes but we
1:59
also have some tense outside notes the
2:01
flat 5 sharp five and Major Seventh now
2:05
you'll notice that there are some of
2:06
those pesky and harmonic notes in there
2:08
we're more likely to view an F on the
2:10
fingerboard rather than an e sharp for
2:12
example
2:13
now don't worry too much about the scale
2:15
spelling at this stage more important is
2:18
that you really dig into how the
2:19
intervals sound over the underlying
2:21
chord now Scott professes to be a blues
Weaving the Diminished into the Blues
2:23
player at heart but with Jazzy outside
2:25
leanings so you'd often find his outside
2:28
lines resolving back to more of an
2:30
inside Blues idea
2:32
[Music]
2:33

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foreign
2:36
[Music]
2:48
so the trick here is trying to visualize
2:50
a combination of scales if we start with
2:53
a Dorian then we include the trusty a
2:56
blues scale but then we combine them
2:58
together we get this hybrid scale
3:02
[Music]
3:21
now inside of this scale we've got this
3:24
pattern here on the third string of the
3:26
fourth fret fifth fret seventh fret and
3:29
eighth fret now this little pattern is
3:33
something that we're going to see all
3:34
over the fretboard when we start
3:35
exploring the diminished scale now all
3:37
we're doing is making a slight
3:38
adjustment to this hybrid scale to get
3:41
our a diminished scale
3:44
so instead of the perfect fifth the E
3:46
we've got a sharp five you can also
3:50
think of that as a flat six or a flat
3:51
13.
3:53
and instead of the flat and seventh
3:54
there the G we've got a G sharp
3:58
which is the major seventh notice how
4:01
the fingers swap from one three four to

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4:04
one two four as we go through each of
4:07
the strings
4:08
[Music]
4:19
[Music]
Using 6ths for Henderson/Landau Sounds
4:26
now ultimately getting away from these
4:28
linear scale patterns is going to give
4:29
you a lot more musical freedom
4:31
in the next example we're going to be
4:33
covering the whole of the fretboard
4:34
using the tone semitone scale pattern of
4:38
the diminished scale but using an
4:39
interval of a sixth
4:41
on the first and third strings from a it
4:45
goes like so
4:49
[Music]
5:02
and we can also do the same thing on the
5:04
second and fourth strings using the same
5:06
pattern but a semitone lower like so
5:10
[Music]
5:23
now these six lend themselves
5:25
particularly well to bluesy slides
5:28
[Music]
5:37
[Applause]
5:37
[Music]
5:40
here we're using hybrid picking so we're

RE
5:43
using the middle finger of the picking
5:45
hand to play the upper string but we can
5:47
also bring in the whammy bar with the
5:49
little finger and this will give us a
5:51
really nice bit of vibrato
5:54
[Music]
5:58
foreign
5:59
[Music]
6:04
and this is something that Scott
6:06
Henderson and players like Mike Landau
6:08
are really fond of doing
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[Music]
6:29
at this point I'd just like to say if
6:31
you're enjoying the video don't forget
6:32
to give it a like And subscribe
String Skipping the Diminished
6:35
a technique that Scott likes to use a
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lot is string skipping to outline the
6:39
sound of a diminished arpeggio
6:41
if you take a standard a diminished
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seventh arpeggio like so
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[Music]
6:53
that second string you'll end up with
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this nice octave pattern
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[Music]
7:04
three Frets apart all over the fretboard

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7:09
[Music]
7:12
[Applause]
7:18
[Music]
7:22
but this does sound like an industry
7:24
with arpeggios so it is a bit mechanical
7:26
a much more interesting pattern and one
7:28
that Scott likes to use is we'll be
7:30
focusing on the same shape but where
7:32
they're one fret apart so we've got one
7:35
here for example at the fourth and fifth
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positions
7:37
[Music]
7:44
and you'll see the same two fret shape
7:46
repeated all over the fretboard
7:52
[Music]
8:00
now I'd recommend that you spend plenty
Focussed Practice
8:02
of time just focusing on one area of the
8:04
fretboard and really thinking about all
8:06
the different permutations that we can
8:07
get across those two strings
8:10
[Music]
8:15
oh
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[Music]
8:40
[Music]
8:46
now of course we've also got this same

RE
8:48
pattern on the second and fourth strings
8:51
[Music]
8:55
so on so we can start to think about
8:57
combining those four strings so here's a
4 String Slip-Slide Pattern
9:00
nice little exercise to get your hand
9:01
really nice and mobile across the
9:03
fretboard
9:05
[Music]
9:10
[Applause]
9:12
[Music]
9:18
once you get more comfortable with this
9:20
concept then you can start shifting
9:22
around the fretboard more akin to what
9:24
Scott does when he's soloing
Making String Skipping Musical
9:25
[Music]
9:31
um
More Outside sounds using Triads
9:44
one of the best ways to tap into the
9:46
diminished sound is by using some of the
9:48
internal structures that are inbuilt
9:49
within the scale
9:51
now inside of our a diminished scale
9:54
we've got four major Triads B major
9:58
D major
9:59
F major

RE
10:01
and a flat major
10:04
all these Triads contain some colorful
10:06
notes from the diminished scale
10:08
[Music]
10:19
now you'll notice that each of them has
10:21
got a slightly different sound over our
10:22
root note so with the f
10:26
with a d
10:27
with a b
10:30
and then the most angular and outside of
10:32
the lot the a flat or G sharp
10:34
[Music]
10:45
[Music]
10:55
to really get the most out of this it's
Know Your Triads!
10:57
super useful to know your inversions
11:00
so here's a little exercise that will
11:02
help you visualize your root position
11:04
first and second inversion Triads across
11:07
the second third and fourth strings it
11:09
goes like so
11:16
[Music]
11:22
thank you
11:24
if you got this far congratulations
A Word from Your Sponsor (ME)
11:27
but you'll also know that it's just the
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tip of the iceberg in terms of exploring
11:30
the outside sounds that the diminished
11:32
scale can offer
11:33
hopefully I've given you some useful
11:35
strategies for practicing and
11:36
improvising with this scale be sure to
11:38
check the notification Bell to keep up
11:40
to date with my future content and happy
11:42
practicing

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