Re: diminished harmony question

reed ( (no email) )
Thu, 15 May 1997 20:21:44 +0100

At 12:39 PM 5/15/97 -0800, you wrote:
>I was pondering diminished chord/scale relations the other
>night and suddenly something occured to me that I hadn't
>seen before. But looking at Levine I am not sure what's
>what.
>
>So, I'd appreciate any comments or illuminations. This is
>the deal. Levine talks about diminished scale as either
>half-whole or whole-half step, but the examples are always
>just 'modal' meaning you start at a different note in the
>scale.
>
>BUT, what I realized the other night. Is that relative to
>the chord, you can have either a half/whole or whole/half
>division of each minor third, AND it starts on the same
>note. So for instance, Cdim - C, Eb, Gb, Bbb, can have
>the scale look like C, D, Eb... OR C, Db, Eb... You see
>each m3 is just divided in either of the two ways. You
>still have the same chord.
>
>So, what I am unclear about is what do you call these two
>scales? Is my confusion clear enough :-).
>
>Jack
>
>
>

The whole half diminished scale is formed by taking a diminished chord, say
C Eb Gb A and adding a half step approach note for each chord note.

Thus C [D Eb] [F Gb] [G# A] [B C]

This is how I think of this.

For the half/whole diminished scale, I have a much different mental
conception.

This is for a dominant chord, say C7 == C E G Bb and for me its:

1 b9 #9 3 #11 5 13 b7 1

C (Db D#) E (F#) G (A) Bb C .

reed

Reed Kotler
reed@justjazz.com
http://www.justjazz.com