This is the first in a series of lesson pages regarding the use of diminished scales and arpeggios over a Vb7 chord in a IIm7, Vb7, IMa7 progression. This is a great resource for improvisational material for use over this common harmonic situation, but not necessarily the only or hippest soulution for this progression! Other approaches involve melodic and harmonic minor scales, sequential triad mechanisms, and even usuages of magic spells and mojos. I'm assuming familiarity with the correct major and minor modes and arpeggios for the IIm7 and Ima7 chords, if not, keep surfing the net, or even better, sell your computer and get a really good teacher with the money (hint, hint!).

In Example 1., I've substituted a C7b9 for the straight C7 that was functioning as the Vb7 chord in the key of F (Gm7 is the IIm7 and Fma7 is the Ima7). A G0 (diminished 7) can be used interchangeably with the C7b9 as it's notes G, Bb, Db and E are the 5, b7, b9 and 3 of a C7b9 chord. G0 is the same as Bb0, Db0 and E0 and are interchangeable because all of these chords consist of the same four notes (hopefully you're buying into all of this so far).

The diminished scale that I'm presenting here (in the first upper left hand diagram), is of the whole step, 1/2 step variety, and is usually somewhat alien to most rock players. However, it's relatively easy to play because it consists of a repeating 1,3,4 & 1,2,4 fingering sequence that repeats over all three pairs of strings. You may find yourself disoriented and unable to remember which string gets the 2nd finger and which gets the 3rd. The solution of course, is to turn off your computer and practice more (I would also recommend that you print this study out and read it off a proper music stand instead of sitting in front of your moitor with a guitar like some techno-cretin). The first unnumbered example is merely a transcript of these notes with the corresponding fingerings expressed in the common arabic numerals.

The next four examples are 1/16 note phrases demonstrating the use of this scale over a C7b9 between a Gm7 and Fma7 (key of F). The last two examples omit the Gm7 for an extended diminished line. This still works over Gm7, as long as the phrase eventually resolves to F major (actually, this scale could easily resolve to F minor as well as F major, but I'll save that for another discussion).

I've intended for these ideas to be played pretty much within the VII and VIII positions of the guitar, with the diminished lines falling into the VIII pos. Notice that this enables me to visualize the scale as being superimposed over an VIII pos Fma7 chord fingering. I like to think of the diminished scale as my dissonant cloud of angst and chaos and the chord formation as my target resolution point, an analogy that makes many horn players scratch their heads and say things like, "Why not just play an F major scale?". Well, sometimes I do.