Tonic Diminished Scale:
In this video, I'm explaining the Tonic Diminished Scale. The video about the more common dominant diminished scale is here [ Ссылка ]


Two things make a diminished scale:
1) A diminished 7th CHORD like B-D-F-Ab
2) The additions of approach tones a half step below each one of the chord tones.

So we get an A# bellow the B, a C# bellow the D, an E below the F and a G below the Ab.

The advantage of seeing it this way is that you can choose to add the approach tones to only SOME of the chord tones and leave the rest as they are. You can be more creative with it.

So a Diminished scale can have 2 main functions.

1) It can either be played on a Dominant chord, leading to the next chord This is the more common case, I made a special video on the dominant diminished chord, It’s in the description.

2) It can be played over the tonic harmony, not leading anywhere, just adding interest to the tonic chord.

(The two cases are not constructed the same way, but if you learn the steps I’m showing you in the two videos on tonic and diminished scale, you’ll get it with without any problem)

So here’s how to build the Tonic Diminished Scale:

Step one: we start from the tonic triad C major, with the notes C-E-G - (1-3-5 in the scale of C major) We move the 3 and the 5 - the E and the G, a half step down to Eb and Gb. The result - C-Eb-Gb is a C diminished chord.

Step two: we extend the triad into a diminished 7th tone. We just another minor third to the diminished triad, (We’ll call this note A instead of double flatted B - it’s easier)

So we got a C diminished 7th chord. C-Eb-Gb-A

Step 3: we add an approach tone, a half step below each one of the chord tone.

And this is the tonic diminished scale.

The last thing to consider is, if we played it with the typical 8th notes, as one and two and… which gets to be on the first strong 8th note: is it one of the chord tones, or one of the approach tones? I think starting with an approach tone is more interesting because we start right away with a note that is in dissonant with the chord.

So now just go practice it! Repeat the process we did here in the key of C. And then try doing it in other keys like F and G.

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