The Diminished Scale: Theory and Practice

Juampy Juarez explores the diminished scale — the symmetrical, eight-note scale heard in the music of Igor Stravinsky, Bela Bartok, John Coltrane, Allan Holdsworth, John McLaughlin, and Adam Rogers — and shows how to put it to work in your own improvising. He begins with the construction of the scale and diminished harmony, demonstrates its one movable zigzag fingering (the same shape every minor third up the neck), and then applies it over static and altered dominant chords in many contexts.

What's covered

• The scale's symmetrical structure: two modes, four roots, and why only three diminished scales exist
• The classic starting point — playing the scale a half step above a dominant chord for tension, resolving through a II-V-I
• Triad pairs from inside the scale for striking modern effects
• Playing the scale horizontally for more melodic results
• Wide-interval playing and "ascendant lines" (moving only upwards) for contemporary jazz sounds
• Using the diminished scale over the blues, with many examples — because, as Juampy says, jazz always needs a foot in tradition
• Compositional ideas, plus an unusual diminished-based solo over Jobim's bossa nova standard "How Insensitive"

Juampy calls his courses "investigations," and this one reveals a wide range of unexpected applications for the scale. The diminished tonality is a must for any student who wants to sound like a contemporary improviser — phrases and licks, both scalar and triadic, are applied to easy blues progressions, famous standards, and II-V-I progressions throughout the video.