Click here or on the image above to get 25% off your lessons courtesy of Guitar Command. Most popular metal guitar scales. 8:04. The diminished scale is often referred to as “whole-half diminished,” which is how I first learned it, in a scale appendix of the highly recommended Jamey Aebersold jazz play-along series of books and audio recordings. For a lesson on improvising with diminished scales, including example guitar solos and a backing track allowing you to play your own solo, see this page: How To Use Diminished Scales. Check out their work, keep an ear out for cool-sounding diminished ideas and have fun exploring these concepts on your own. Learn how to play diminished scales on guitar. Steve Stine Guitar Lesson - A Killer Diminished Guitar Lick Made Easy - Duration: 15:37. This guitar lesson explains how to use diminished scales in improvisation, and includes an example guitar solo plus a backing track so you can solo with diminished scales yourself. Receive news and offers from our other brands? Confusion often stems from the misunderstanding of the term, as it is often misused to describe the type of licks found in FIGURE 1. - Duration: 8:04. C Major Pentatonic Scale Guitar: Play The Pentatonic Major Scale in C in Multiple Fretboard Positions, With TAB, Notation & Scale Patterns, Guitar Strings Notes: Learn Every Note On The Fretboard, E Major Pentatonic Scale Guitar: Play The Pentatonic Major Scale in E in Multiple Fretboard Positions, With TAB, Notation & Scale Patterns, Guitar Modes Tab & Fretboard Diagrams: Complete Lesson – Learn How To Use Modes In Your Solos. All rights reserved. Thank you for signing up to Guitar World. FIGURE 6 offers a relatively simple example, which can be moved up and down the neck in minor thirds. Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors? We’d love to stay in touch, sign up for the Guitar World team to contact you with great news, content and offers. The diminished scale has a rather ambiguous sound when played without accompaniment. This means that a diminished scale can potentially fit both a majorand a minor chord with the same root. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. BERNTH 9,273 views. The diminished scale is often a bit tricky to study on the guitar, compared to the major scale modes which are usually quicker and easier to work out on the fretboard. The A diminished scale is: A Bb C C# Eb E F# G. The Diminished scale, quite uniquely,contains all of the following: an A major chord (A C# E), an A minor chord (A C E), and an Adiminished chord (A C Eb). It can also be used for fusion and heavy metal. Two more ways of playing diminished scales on the guitar are shown below: We hope that you’ve enjoyed learning how to play this strange-sounding, but useful, scale on your guitar. Diminished scales are commonly used to improvise over diminished chords (from which they are formed), and are also used to create tensions over dominant chords. Bath For more information on diminished scales, see this page: Diminished Scale Guitar . There was a problem. And as usual, here you can hear a sample solo with the Diminished scale. Although I tend to use diminished-scale ideas primarily in improvisational settings, I occasionally sneak one into a metal solo (such as in Testament’s “More Than Meets the Eye” [hear it below]). Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Study the C diminished scale notation below. The diminished scale is a highly useful resource for adding spice to solos. Now that you understand diminished scale theory, let’s learn some fingerings for each of the two scales. What Type Of Electric Guitar To Buy? And since each triad has its own inversions (root position, first and second inversion) the possibilities for melodic invention are immense! The diminished scale is often referred to as “whole-half diminished,” which is how I first learned it, in a scale appendix of the highly recommended Jamey Aebersold jazz play-along series of books and audio recordings. However, in the right circumstances diminished scales can liven up melodies and guitar solos. C Pentatonic Minor Guitar Tab: Click to see more ways of playing this scale. Alex Skolnick photos from lesson video by Tom Couture | www.tomcouture.com. Meanwhile, any variation of notes within the diminished scale is movable up and down the neck in minor-third intervals (equal to a three-fret shift on a single string). If you look closely at the spacing of the notes in a diminished scale, you’ll see why this occurs. This means that (for example) an A diminished scale contains the same notes as a C diminished scale, an E flat diminished scale, and a G flat diminished scale. Visit our corporate site. Two common ways of playing diminished chords on the guitar are shown below: In these diminished scale diagrams, any of the white circles can be considered to be the root / tonic note of the scale. Unlike the modes, the diminished scale is built from a continuously symmetrical intervallic sequence as each four-note group progresses. The Best Rush Albums Ranked: What Are The Top 5 Rush Albums? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. This means that (for example) an A diminished scale contains the same notes as a C diminished scale, an E flat diminished scale, and a G flat diminished scale. Using the Diminished Arpeggio in Heavy Metal. They are most often played over dominant chords. Contemporary Jazz Guitarists: A List Of Exciting Young Jazz Guitarists. The pentatonic minor scale is widely used in many styles of music – not just in metal. By Rob Thorpe. Metal Guitar Scales 1. The scale patterns shown below are movable, meaning you can slide the patterns up and down the fretboard to change the key you're playing in (you can learn to expand out of these boxes in the individual scale lessons). When first exploring diminished scales on guitar, it is easy to confuse these two scales. This lesson includes two audio extracts from my new book Heavy Metal Rhythm Guitar. All Rights Reserved. The diminished scale is different from the other scales presented here in that it has 8 notes ratherthan 7. Diminished Scale Guitar Diagram 2 In these diminished scale diagrams, any of the white circles can be considered to be the root / tonic note of the scale. Guitar Buying Advice For Beginners. How To Get A Jazz Guitar Sound: The Guitar, Strings, Pick and Amplifier You Need For A Jazz Tone, What is a Chorus Pedal, What Does A Chorus Pedal Do, And How / When to Use Chorus in Your Playing, Lydian Scale Guitar: Learn How To Play The Lydian Modal Scale On Your Guitar, What is a Compressor Pedal, What Does A Compressor Pedal Do, And How / When to Use Compression in Your Playing. First off, let me start by saying that the Whole-Half and Half-Whole are not different entities, they only reflect the way you choose to see it, in theory.. Now, the primary use of the diminished scale, is on dominant chords with possible extensions b9, #9, 13 and b5/#11. Again, any inherent patterns, whether triads, whole steps, half steps, or any combination thereof, can be sequenced up or down in minor thirds. Click to see more pentatonic patterns. Meanwhile, any variation of notes within the diminished scale is movable up and down the neck in minor-third intervals (equal to a three-fret shift on a single string). But, by working out various fingerings and practice patterns, you will ensure that you are ready to nail any Dim7 chord in your soloing lines the next time you run into one. See how it contains the same notes as E flat, G flat and A diminished scales. By starting with a half step, followed by alternating whole steps and half steps, we get the sole “mode” of the scale, referred to as “half-whole diminished,” as shown in FIGURES 4 and 5. Here’s where things get interesting: within the rather sinister-sounding B half-whole diminished scale (B C D D# F F# G# A) lives a rather happy-sounding B major triad (B Ds F#). Try playing the following licks with a heavily-distorted guitar tone: Diminished Licks – Metal Diminished Licks In Jazz. Since all of these patterns are movable in minor thirds, this means three more major triads—D, F and Ab—also live within the same B half-whole scale.