Victor Bailey

The Symmetrical Diminished Scale

Victor Bailey will forever be known as the man who took over the bass duties in Weather
Report after Jaco Pastorius. However, he has had a long and fruitful career laying down the
bottom for artists as diverse as Michael Brecker, LL Cool J, Mike Stern, Mary J Blige,
Steps Ahead, and Madonna. Victor manages to cross all these stylistic boundaries while
retaining his unique musical personality, which includes his advanced melodic concept. His
command of the jazz vocabulary and swinging feel give his soloing an authenticity that
stands out in a world saturated with chops-driven bass slingers. I asked Victor about some
of the material he draws on to create his solos, and he gave me a lesson on using the
symmetrical diminished scale for voice leading to chord tones and tensions.
As the name suggests, the symmetrical diminished scale is built from a symmetrical pattern of
whole-steps and half-steps. Ex. 1 shows the scale starting from C. Notice that it takes eight notes
(C, D, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, A, B, C) to get to the octave instead of the usual seven. This scale has an
interesting quality and it works well with minor harmony. The half-step shift with the 4th finger
is the key to fingering this scale effectively. When descending, you can also shift using the 1st
finger between Gb and F. Ex. 2 shows the symmetrical diminished scale starting on the E string
and extending past the octave. The fingering makes it easy to continue the pattern across all four
strings.
Ex. 3 uses a IIm7b5V7b9#11 progression to show how the scale, now starting on G, works with
chord changesin this case, Gm7b5 and C7b9#11. To really hear how the scale interacts with
these minor harmonies, record the chords and play the line over it. Ex. 3 works over any basic
IIm7V7 progression, but it goes especially well with the b5 and b9 tensions included. Chord
tones and tensions land on the downbeats, while the upbeats create strong voice leading. In bar 1,
beat one is the root of Gm7b5, beat two is the minor 3rd, and beat four is the 13th. In bar 2, beat
one is the 5th of C7b9#11, beat two is the b7th, beat three is the b9th, and beat four is the 3rd.
Because the scale lines up with the chord tones and tensions, it becomes a useful tool for
improvising over the progression.
Ex. 4 takes this idea several steps further by using the symmetrical diminished scale through a
sequence of descending IIVs with the same tensions as before. The last eight bars of Dizzy
Gillespies Woody n You follows this route, and its a challenging landscape to solo over. Play
through this example to get a better feel for the melodic tension created as you move through the
chord tones and tensions. To my ear, it has a sort of Monk-ish quality to it. The first two scales
are ascending, but due to the range limitations on a 4-string bass, the last scale descends from the
high Eb and ends on a low F, which is the 3rd of the final Dbmaj7 chord.
The symmetrical diminished scale is a big part of the modern jazz vocabulary. Learning it will
help you improvise through tough chord changes like these.
Extras
In jazz theory, the term tensions refers to the 9th, 11th, or 13th of a chord, also called the chords
upper extensions. Altered tensions include the b9th, #9th, #11, and b13th. Prior to bebop, most
jazz soloists relied mainly on the chord tonesroot, 3rd, 5th, and 7thfor building solos.
Saxophonist Charlie Parker pioneered the use of the tensions.
Voice leading is the technique of giving melodic lines a smooth, stepwise contour as the chords
change underneath.
Theres another eight-note symmetrical diminished scale, built on a half-step/whole-step structure
and derived from melodic minor scales 7th mode. The two scales are essentially the same; they
just start on different steps.