We are going to learn about diminished scales and arpeggios today.
This is one of the most important thing to learn in gypsy jazz.
Diminish sounds Gypsy Jazz. I could say that when you use diminished scales or arpeggios , your solo sounds 10 times more gypsy jazzy.
Get ready and let’s learn them !
Diminished chords are substitutes of 7th chords
Before getting into scales, I will show you some rules.
First of all, Diminished chords chord tone is 4 notes.
1-b3-b5-bb7 – When it’s Cdim , chord tones are C Eb Gb A
Diminished chords are substitutes of dominant chords, right? Then what chords substitutes what? I’ll give you simple examples for now.
- C7→C#dim(Dbdim)
- D7→D#dim(Ebdim)
- E7→Fdim
- F7→F#dim(Gbdim)
- G7→G#dim(Abdim)
- A7→A#dim(Bbdim)
- B7→Cdim
As you can see, b9 of dominant chord can be diminished substitution.
Also this is quite important that there are many diminished chord names but when you see the chord tones , there are only 3 chords.
- Cdim = Ebdim = F#dim = Adim
- Ddim = Fdim = G#dim = Bdim
- Edim = Gdim = A#dim = C#dim
Diminished chords symbol is ○ or dim.
When you see these symbols ”Φor dim7” , which means m7b5 in gypsy jazz book, usually. But non-gypsy-jazz sheet music often use Φor dim7 as diminished chords. confusing us…
Diminished Scales
Diminished scale has 8 notes like R 2 b3 4 b5 #5 6 7.
When it’s Ebdim , then notes are Eb F F# G# A B C D
Also as I told you , Ebdim scale is same as Adim , F#dim , Cdim.
One more thing , Let’s have a look at Ebdim scale again. Notes are Eb F F# G# A B C D , if you start from D then , scale looks like this.
DEb FF# G#A BC
Do you see this lick ? Django used this often.
7b9 chord scales
This is just another way of calling same chords. This is D7b9 scales and this is just same as Ebdim scales, because Ebdim is substitution of D7.
Diminished Arpeggios
Diminished arpeggios have 4 notes and they are unique. Arpeggio is this, R b3 b5 bb7, right?
When you see your fret board , each notes have same distance to each other.(sorry i can’t discribe better ) It’s like this.
Now , let’s do it !
another position
Strat from 5th string
We often use this one
When you play this one , do not use alternate picking. We use down stroke. It’s like you move your arm down to play it. It will take long time to learn this technique but this is a must-learn-technique , if you play gypsy jazz.
another lessons
We learnt diminished scales and arpeggios today. There are also Major , Minor , 7th ones to learn as well.
Check this one too.