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Writer's pictureJay EuDaly

Going Modal! Diminished

The Diminished Scale


The Diminished Scale, like the Augmented Scale that we covered in last months' lesson, is symmetrical. That means it has a repeating pattern of intervals. The diminished formula is: whole-step, half-step, whole-step, half-step...and so on.

The symmetry of the scale formula translates to a symmetrical pattern on the fretboard. Any note can be considered the root if it is followed by a whole-step to the next note.

Additionally, I find Diminished 7 arpeggios very useful, so I include them in this lesson. Since an arpeggio consists of the chord tones, a short section on Diminished chords is necessary.

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Blogs Published Since Last Newsletter

2-Note Blues Chords: If you play through the 12-bar Blues form using just these 2-note chords, you should be able to "hear" the form. You'll be staying out of the keyboard players' way and you'll be staying out of the bass player's way. They will appreciate that! Integrity & the Music Biz: The agent told me the concept was to be that of “a kick-ass band of superior musicians who don’t care what they look like." So...not caring about what we looked like was because we cared about not caring about what we looked like! The concept was right down my alley because caring about what I looked like was just an act I put on so I could get gigs; I really didn’t care about what I looked like. So for this agent, I had to pretend to care about what I looked like so I could act like I didn’t care about what I looked like…all the while really not caring about what I looked like. Stupid shit like that happens all the time in the music business when you care about what you look like. Now I’m getting kind of old so how good could I look…really?! Pretending to be Danny: "This," I said to myself, "is the guy!"

 

Tune of the Month


How about a cover?


"Jeannine" is a jazz standard written by Duke Pearson and Oscar Brown. This version is from my Channeling Harold CD (released in 2001) featuring Rich VanSant on Hammond B3 and Kevin Johnson on drums. Rich has retired but I still perform with Kevin a couple of times a month.


Jeannine is a burner!


 

Jay


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