Intro

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this video is going to show you how the
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Great Scott Henderson uses the
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diminished scale to create some really
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beautiful outside sounds over a static
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minor seventh chord progression I'll not
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only show you what to play but I'll also
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give you some strategies to make it
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sound musical now I feel like many of
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the guitarists that I've taught over the
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years a really common issue that crops
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up time and again is feeling like you're
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playing is stuck in a bit of a musical
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Wasteland often repeating the same ideas
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and quite frankly you're getting a bit
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bored with some of the lines that you're
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playing now a great way to prevent your
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ideas from flatlining when you're
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improvising over a static chord
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progression is to play something The
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Listener isn't expecting so some outside
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notes the jar against the chords can
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create some really nice tension
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one of the examples we'll be doing just
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this and exploring the sound of the a
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diminished scale over a static a minor 7
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backing my name is Steve allsworth let's
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Dive In back in 1988 long before the
Why the W/H Diminished works over a m7
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internet and streaming Scott introduces
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instructional video jazz fusion
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improvisation on VHS now this was
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groundbreaking at the time and I'd still
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regard this as one of the finest
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instructional videos that's out there
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now this has since been repackaged into
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the DVD Jazz Rock Mastery and I've left
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some links down below this included his
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harmonic rules for improvising where he
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laid out all of his scales arpeggios
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Triads and modes over literally any
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chord type now as you work your way down
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through the list Scott introduces more
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outside sounds and this is where you'll
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find the whole half diminished scale as
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a possibility over a minor seventh chord
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now this isn't something that you
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typically expect to hear over a minor
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seventh chord in fact if you look in
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most Theory manuals it says that you'd
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only expect to hear a whole half
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diminished scale over a diminished
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seventh chord so why the diminished
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scale
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well one of the ways that we can view
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this is as a variation of the Dorian
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scale which is a common Choice over a
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static Minor 7 Vamp this is because
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there are a lot of common notes but we
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also have some tense outside notes the
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flat 5 sharp five and Major Seventh now
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you'll notice that there are some of
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those pesky and harmonic notes in there
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we're more likely to view an F on the
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fingerboard rather than an e sharp for
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example
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now don't worry too much about the scale
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spelling at this stage more important is
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that you really dig into how the
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intervals sound over the underlying
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chord now Scott professes to be a blues
Weaving the Diminished into the Blues
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player at heart but with Jazzy outside
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leanings so you'd often find his outside
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lines resolving back to more of an
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inside Blues idea
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[Music]
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foreign
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[Music]
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so the trick here is trying to visualize
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a combination of scales if we start with
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a Dorian then we include the trusty a
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blues scale but then we combine them
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together we get this hybrid scale
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[Music]
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now inside of this scale we've got this
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pattern here on the third string of the
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fourth fret fifth fret seventh fret and
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eighth fret now this little pattern is
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something that we're going to see all
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over the fretboard when we start
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exploring the diminished scale now all
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we're doing is making a slight
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adjustment to this hybrid scale to get
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our a diminished scale
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so instead of the perfect fifth the E
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we've got a sharp five you can also
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think of that as a flat six or a flat
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13.
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and instead of the flat and seventh
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there the G we've got a G sharp
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which is the major seventh notice how
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the fingers swap from one three four to

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4:04
one two four as we go through each of
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the strings
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[Music]
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[Music]
Using 6ths for Henderson/Landau Sounds
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now ultimately getting away from these
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linear scale patterns is going to give
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you a lot more musical freedom
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in the next example we're going to be
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covering the whole of the fretboard
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using the tone semitone scale pattern of
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the diminished scale but using an
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interval of a sixth
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on the first and third strings from a it
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goes like so
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[Music]
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and we can also do the same thing on the
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second and fourth strings using the same
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pattern but a semitone lower like so
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[Music]
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now these six lend themselves
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particularly well to bluesy slides
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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here we're using hybrid picking so we're

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5:43
using the middle finger of the picking
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hand to play the upper string but we can
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also bring in the whammy bar with the
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little finger and this will give us a
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really nice bit of vibrato
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[Music]
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foreign
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[Music]
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and this is something that Scott
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Henderson and players like Mike Landau
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are really fond of doing
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[Music]
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at this point I'd just like to say if
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you're enjoying the video don't forget
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to give it a like And subscribe
String Skipping the Diminished
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a technique that Scott likes to use a
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lot is string skipping to outline the
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sound of a diminished arpeggio
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if you take a standard a diminished
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seventh arpeggio like so
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[Music]
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that second string you'll end up with
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this nice octave pattern
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[Music]
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three Frets apart all over the fretboard

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7:09
[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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but this does sound like an industry
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with arpeggios so it is a bit mechanical
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a much more interesting pattern and one
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that Scott likes to use is we'll be
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focusing on the same shape but where
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they're one fret apart so we've got one
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here for example at the fourth and fifth
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positions
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[Music]
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and you'll see the same two fret shape
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repeated all over the fretboard
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[Music]
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now I'd recommend that you spend plenty
Focussed Practice
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of time just focusing on one area of the
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fretboard and really thinking about all
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the different permutations that we can
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get across those two strings
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[Music]
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oh
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[Music]
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[Music]
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now of course we've also got this same

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pattern on the second and fourth strings
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[Music]
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so on so we can start to think about
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combining those four strings so here's a
4 String Slip-Slide Pattern
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nice little exercise to get your hand
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really nice and mobile across the
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fretboard
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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once you get more comfortable with this
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concept then you can start shifting
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around the fretboard more akin to what
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Scott does when he's soloing
Making String Skipping Musical
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[Music]
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um
More Outside sounds using Triads
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one of the best ways to tap into the
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diminished sound is by using some of the
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internal structures that are inbuilt
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within the scale
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now inside of our a diminished scale
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we've got four major Triads B major
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D major
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F major

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10:01
and a flat major
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all these Triads contain some colorful
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notes from the diminished scale
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[Music]
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now you'll notice that each of them has
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got a slightly different sound over our
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root note so with the f
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with a d
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with a b
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and then the most angular and outside of
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the lot the a flat or G sharp
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[Music]
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[Music]
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to really get the most out of this it's
Know Your Triads!
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super useful to know your inversions
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so here's a little exercise that will
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help you visualize your root position
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first and second inversion Triads across
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the second third and fourth strings it
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goes like so
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[Music]
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thank you
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if you got this far congratulations
A Word from Your Sponsor (ME)
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but you'll also know that it's just the
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tip of the iceberg in terms of exploring
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the outside sounds that the diminished
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scale can offer
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hopefully I've given you some useful
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strategies for practicing and
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improvising with this scale be sure to
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check the notification Bell to keep up
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to date with my future content and happy
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practicing

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