Great tutorial on the diminished scale for those unfamiliar with it! I'm self taught and I figured out the modes, diminished, half/whole and whole tone scales before knowing what they were called. The diminished scale, having 8 notes and being completely symmetrical (the whole tone scale is also symmetrical but it only has 6 notes) is a topless/bottomless treasure trove of patterns you can come up with! Because it contains two fully diminished 7th chords, you can mix and match those arpeggios and create some wild stuff! That same scale also contains 4 major triads and 4 minor triads. A great example of the kinds of patterns you can use is this lick that Coltrane liked to play in the late '50s (often with blinding speed): Here it is: D, C, F, Eb, B, A, D, C, Ab, Gb, B, A, F, Eb, Ab, Gb. Try it, you'll like it! Besides, you kind of have to know these scales if you want to play jazz.
I didn't know what this was, but almost every song I've ever written has this dimensioned scale. Thanks for teaching what Ive been playing for a long time!
Bravo! The way Mr. Borkowski teaches his stuff is unparalleled. I feel like suggesting to many others celebrated guitar instructors to come here to learn how to teach an arid topic with simplicity.
As a music teacher I must commend these lessons - beautifully paced and totally accessible to all levels unlike many other creators with much larger followings - thank you Jared 🙂
bro, you are hands down the best teacher of guitar/music theory i've ever come across. The way you explain and break down what many would consider complicated theory and make it easily comprehensible is a truly a gift i am glad you share with the world. i watch a video of yours almost every night trying to become better
Finally....I can stop teaching now! I can stream these videos to my students and take a nap.. Very well done..I'm impressed.. Thank you for your passion..
A lot of RU-vid channels are trying to present guitar-playing content these days. Some are very good. I've benefited from watching them and using their ideas in my playing. This is the second time I've watched your channel and about half way through the thought occurred to me that I don't know of anybody doing it any better than you are. And I subscribed. Stay after it, man.
Besides the fact that your lessons are so well presented, useful, factual, and interesting, you, IMO, demonstrate one of the characteristics of a great teacher. You disseminate information freely and free. What a great addition to the WWW of guitar instruction. I've listened and learned so much from you, Jared. Can't begin to thank you enough.
Absolutely brilliant lesson i went away and played around with this over the chords on my looper and im hooked! Thanks so much Jared really clearly explained and the historical context was brilliantly communicated. 🛎 and 👍 right here. Definitely my go to to for all things jazz. I usually play flamenco but my teacher said study jazz just because and he was so right.
A huge thank you...I have been using your videos recently as I find they stretch my skills without making me dispirited. Today I decided to start to really understand Diminished Universe, and WOW this lesson has totally transformed my understanding of it (from a very low start!) and I actually nearly sound like I know what I am doing. Thanks Jared, you have made a real difference to my playing
I love your videos. They are easy to understand, digestible and you show clearly how it can be applied practically. You are definitely in my top 5 of guitar teachers on RU-vid
I am so glad I checked your lesson out Jared I usually pass over Diminished scale lessons most of the ones I watched were just not friendly to a by ear self taught guitar player that wasn't so sure what I was playing was ok until you tube. This is so smooth and clear I believe I can learn from this lesson thank you brother and God bless
Funny two weeks ago I said I was going to devote an entire week to nothing but diminished scales, runs ,patterns , shapes etc. I now realize I might need an entire year to actually get it under my fingers. I saw a great lesson on the triads that exist in the diminished scale . Very useful as well .
wow this is great, my favorite thing about this is that you mention how this relates to other music theory concepts which helps me string things together, i have been stuck for the past couple of months on where to start with music theory because every video i watch sounds very foreign and confusing. thank you so much for this
This video is really rad and well done. Its taken me a while to rap my mind around diminished scales. This video really articulates how to use the scale. Also so cool to point out which chords work with this wild scale, otherwise you are fumbling around in the dark.
Great video and very appreciated. You helped unlock something which had been perplexing me that I hadn't found explained in other tutorials on the use of diminished scales and that is how to use them over the V chord.
Stumbled onto this; what a great guide to the diminished scale! Thank you for doing this! It's demystified it a lot for me, I would try to throw it in once in a while but without much conviction or confidence, so unsurprisingly uninspiring results, but this video has pushed me to a much better understanding and what "should" follow is better and more musical use. Thanks again, will also check out your WATCH NEXT video.
I think diminished might be my favorite sound. I like how tense, unsettling and depressing it can be. I thought about coming up with a minor blues just using minor, diminished and phrygian dominant. The more depressing the better haha.
Great! Stumbled upon you channel, always looking for ways to learn the diminished sound. This just might be the perfect entry! Thanks a lot. Will check some more stuff on your channel. Like your approach!
Sorry for the previous comment.I just watched you chord video.I am still drinking out of the water hose,but it all makes a lot more sense.The diminished sound on the guitar is like Chinese arithmetic....For Me Thank You for your lessons!
It's a wicked scale. Combine it with Dorian/MM, the minor blues scale, some chromaticism and much fun can be had. You may end up sounding a bit like Pat Martino. ( We live in hope). 👍
Hey Jared. An instructor in this format never knows at what point a student might get "stuck" and not be able to move ahead. I'm a fledgling, so I get stuck at elementary places. Often, a graphic of the fretboard has the lowest pitch string at the top, and just as often, it has the highest pitch string at the top. Suppose you made the line representing each string thicker, or thinner, to represent the actual gauge of the strings on the instrument. That way, the student can know instantly if your graphic is upside down, or right side up. I know it would help me, right now, to follow along. Thanks for your great vids!
Hi Jared. Thanks for a great lesson. There is one thing I'm not clear on though. Are the whole - half and the half- whole diminished scales interchangeable? Would a half- whole scale work the same for the examples you gave in the lesson?
guys lol ok now you have to remember all the positions ! ahaha ! i have my method to play that scale ! but the thing on this site with all the fingering lol i"m tired just before to do it !
great video! just one question: if the scale is symetrical can i just play de second shape all over the neck? if i play the second shape starting on the F# of the E string, it will be the same thing of the first shape that you show for the C diminished right?
Ok, promise last time I will bother you about this. If I start H/W I get: flat 9, #9, 3, #11, 5, 6, flat 7. If I start W/H I get: 9, m3, 4, #11, #5, 6, maj7. I cannot wrap my mind around this. How can two scales be interchangeable that have, for ex. flat 9, #9 and the other natural 9? Can you switch mid stream from one to the other? Between the two all 12 tones are represented so it seems like you could play any note and it would work because it's in one of these interchangeable scales. Of course I've found that not be the case, or am I wrong? Really appreciate how you take the time to answer us struggling newbies.
Think of it like a portal to another musical plane. You play diminished scale over specific chord and enter a different musical reality. Lwhen you play a “scale note” from the tonicised scale, it collapses the portal and you are back to diatonic reality. You can use diminished chords to expresss altered scale notes, but diminished scale is for playing over dominant and diminished chords.
I have a question. The excerpt from 22:13 until 24:57 regarding diminished scales - If I'm in E harmonic Minor, playing the V (B7), the b9 from the root of the chord B7 is back to B, or more generically the b9 from the V chord's root is the I of the chord itself. In that case playing the Diminshed scale from the b9 of the B7 chord is playing B diminished, but you mentioned don't play the Dim scale off of the 1 of the chord. Is this perfectly fine to play the dim scale from the I, or is there a reason I'm missing? Any chance you can clarify this? Thanks for your excellent videos @soundguitar, they're really helping me push through this vast plateau I've been struggling with.
Sir, wrt second point of practice, are you starting the guitar lick on the low E string with a half step from G, only to make it sound cool ? So the whole lick where it ends on F on the high E string is played through different strings and different scales. It does not pertain to any single scale, right ?
15:08 Is this what you meant when you talked about the 3 Notes Per Scale pedagogy, in opposition to learning the "CAGED" system of things? Or am I entirely incorrect in drawing this connection here? Maybe you were distinguishing, in that former video about 3NPS, precisely and exclusively in learning the *major* scale. God bless
