G A Bb C C# Eb E F#

If you don’t know your fretboard you are going to have trouble with this lesson. I highly suggest learning your fretboard as it will make your musical journey that much easier. So much easier in fact that you will be able to solo, improvise, write songs, melodies, and if you want to read music… it’s going to crucial.

G A Bb C C# Eb E F#

Repeat this scale out loud as you go through this post.

Above is the G Octatonic Scale. Its also known as the G Diminished scale or the G Whole Half Scale meaning its built from a whole step followed by a half step all the way up the scale.

It has 2 modes. The whole-half mode and the half-whole mode. So the A half-whole scale is the same scale as the G whole half scale.

G A Bb C C# Eb E F# …and… A Bb C C# Eb E F# G

This scale can get confusing, but its oh so delightful!

If you want odd, new sounds and new progressions then this is the scale for you.

Below I give you some examples you can use with the G diminished scale along with the chord tones for the chords.

Progression 1

C7b9 – C E G F C#

Cadd6 – C E A C

GmMaj7b5 – G Bb C# F#

Rhythm:

Improvisation:

You can also create riffs such as the one below by pedaling off of the low E string. I used a C7b9 chord, F#7b9, Eb7 and Eo7.

There’s nothing better than discovering a nasty little scale that just makes your day incredibly exhilarating. An 8 note scale known as the Octatonic scale just like the octagon in MMA and UFC fighting. 8 notes in the scale and 8 posts in the octagon.

I remember learning and discovering the pentatonic scale – boring.

I remember discovering the major scale – boring.

I remember discovering the harmonic minor scale – incredibly exciting.

I remember discovering the melodic minor scale – kind of cool.

I remember discovering the Hungarian minor scale – incredibly exciting once again.

There are other scales that I’ve discovered but haven’t studied in full such as the whole tone scale and the augmented scale but they don’t float my boat so much as the 8 tone Spanish scale and the Oriental scale and the Enigmatic scale.

All are great scales to look forward to!

Progression 2

(io7 iio7 biiio7 ivo7 io7 imMaj7b5)

Go7 A07 Bb07 C07 G07 GmMaj7b5

I put the chords on the staff in quarter notes but you can play this progression in any way you like.

Get creative and rip it up!!!

Progression 3

In this progression we will look at some other chords available to us within the G Diminished Scale. Starting from G if you descend the scale, we arrive at F#. F# can be Major, Minor or a Dominant 7th.

For example:

Go7 F#7 F#m F# is basically a progression using this scale. This progression has chords really close by so there is not a lot of movement, meaning the tonal center of the progression is very close to the note G.

If you slide up in minor 3rds from F# we get A, C and Eb. You can do the same with these chords. They can be Major, Minor or Dominant 7th chords.

So now we have all these chords available to us.

F#7 F#m F# Am A A7 C Cm C7 Eb Ebm Eb7

If we add all the diminished 7th chords in the scale we get:

Go7 Ao7 Bbo7 Co7 C#o7 Ebo7 Eo7 F#o7 plus: F#7 F#m F# Am A A7 C Cm C7 Eb Ebm Eb7

Try this one progression out:

Go7 F#m A7 – C#o7 Ao7 Eb Go7

Did you like it? Did you not? If not, what would you change?

Play around with the chords and write some progressions of your own. The best way to learn is to listen to the sounds of the scale. So as a friend told me…

learn to listen and then listen to learn!!!

Composers

Composers who used the Diminished Scale in their music. Almost every shred guitar player, heavy metal or hard rock guitarist, and even jazz guitarists have used diminished 7th chords in the music they create. To solely stay in the scale is another thing altogether. Bela Bartok used this scale and so did other Modernist composers. Chopin has used it. Rimsy Korsakov has this scale named after him.

Schoenberg, Schubert and Scriabin have also used this scale.

One of my favorite composers, Igor Stravinsky, used it extensively.

Wikipedia