Half-Whole Diminished Explanations

8/12/2019 Half-Whole Diminished Explanations

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The half-whole diminished scale is one of two possible diminished scales.

The other is whole-half diminished.

Half-whole diminished is a very useful scale over dominant b9 chords.

The name of the scale describes how it’s constructed: alternating half steps

and whole steps.

So, for example, a C half-whole diminished scale would be:

C, C# Eb, E, F#, G, A, Bb, C.

Over a C7b9 chord you have a root, b9, #9, 3rd, #11 (or b5), 5th, 13th (or6th), and dominant 7th.

Another way to think of it is root, b9, and the 3rd, 5th, and dominant 7th

each with a lower half step approach note.

This is a great scale to use when you want to add some color to a blues solo.

You can use the half-whole diminished scale that corresponds to the root, 4th

& 5th chords.

You can also substitute a half-whole diminshed scale that is a tritone (flat

5th) from the root of the chord.

So, for a blues in C you could play a C H-W dim scale over the C7 chord,

move the scale down a half step and play B H-W dim over the F7 chord,

move back up to C H-W Dim when the chords change back to C7, and then

move up a half step and play Db H-W Dim over the G7 chord. It sounds

complicated, but is easy & intuitive once you hear it a few times.

There are some unique elements of this scale.

Any pattern you play will also work if you move it up or down by a minor

3rd. As mentioned above, you can move any pattern by a 4th by moving the

pattern down a half step or up a whole step.

You can move any pattern by a 5th by moving up a half step or down a

whole step.



Use half-whole over dominant b9 chords or any diminished chord that might

function as a dominant b9 chord.

So for chords that are written as dominant b9 (C7b9 for instance), you can

use a H-W dim. scale beginning on the root of the chord. So, C H-W dim

over C7b9. OR, if there is a diminished chord that functions as a dominant

b9 chord.

Here’s an example.

Take a look at the first 6 bars of Jobim’s tune “How Insensitive”:

| Dm9 | Dm9 | C#dim7 | C#dim7 | Cm6 | Cm6 |

In this example, C#dim7 functions as a G7b9 chord. How do I know?

Anytime I see a diminished chord I’m going to look ahead to see where it’s

resolving to. In this case it’s going to a C minor chord.

The most common chord progression in western music is a dominant 5th

chord resolving to a “one” chord, so the most likely “suspect” here is a G7

chord of some type. So, a half-whole diminished scale starting at C# gives

me: C#, D, E, F, G, G#, Bb, B.

The same notes as G half-whole diminished!

So, carrying this logic further, C#dim7 is enharmonically equivalent to

Gdim7, E dim7, and Bbdim7.

And it follows, then, that any of the four can substitute for G7b9 and be the

“root” for a half-whole diminished scale that will resolve to C (major or

minor).

Where the diminished chord is resolving to will tell you whether to use half-

whole or whole-half diminished.

Often you will find a strong resolution note a half step below a H-W

diminished note, but I don’t think it’s a hard & fast rule.

Most of the time when you see a diminished chord it is a disguise for a

dominant b9 chord.



Dominant b9 lines can be constructed by playing 2 diminished arpeggios a

half step apart.

Think about this:

1. There are only 12 possible notes in the chromatic scale

2. Diminished arpeggios are constructed of 4 notes each a minor 3rd apart.

This makes them symmetrical.

3. Since they are symmetrical, you could consider any of the 4 notes in the

arpeggio as the “root”.

4. That means there are really only 3 possible diminished arpeggios that are

“unique” (i.e., whose notes are not present in another arpeggio).

5. Any half-whole dimished scale is made up of 2 out of the 3 possible

“unique” arpeggios. For example, G half-whole diminshed would be

composed of the G, Bb, Db, E arpeggio (remember, any of the notes could be

considered the root) and the G#, B, D, F arpeggio.

These 2 arpeggios comprise all of the notes of G half-whole diminished.

An excellent source of half-whole diminished patterns is Nicolas

Slonimsky’s “Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns”.

I will outline here some melodic patterns from Slonimsky as well as some

of my own ideas inspired by Slonimsky.

Page 52 outlines the various intervals within the half-whole diminished

scale. Examples 1 - 5 are a few useful patterns over C7b9 chords:

(See Example 1- 5)

Examples 1 &2 are Slonimsky’s divisions of C Half-Whole Diminished into

major 3rds and 4th, respectively. These and all other examples listed here are

moveable in minor 3rds.

Example 3 is a triplet figure using 4ths a minor 3rd apart. The 4ths are offset



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Half-Whole Diminished Explanations