The diminished scales: fingerings

As always, practice is the best way to study the scales, and this is also true for the diminished scales. The exercises that will follow show you the complete acquisition of the fingerings, following the rules seen in the previous page. Remember to use a metronome and to maintain a constant (and initially slow) pace, in order to completely learn the fingerings of the following exercises.
Before starting the exercises we need to analyze some fingerings.

Tone semi-tone fingerings

The first exercises will get you familiar with the principal fingerings of the diminished scales. The initial problem is mostly related to the mobility of the left hand, because the hand often moves inside the fingering. This causes some difficulties in the memorization of the fingerings and in the transport to other scales. In any case, with some practice this problems can be overcome.

The above graph illustrates a basic fingering for the tone semi-tone diminished scales. Look at the double position: on the first four strings the left hand is one fret behind with respect to the fifth and sixth strings. This fingering has four tonics, identified by the blue numbers for the notes. This was done by analyzing the properties of the diminished scales.
Lets look at an example in C (also equal to Eb, F# and A). The tonics are identified by the black squares.

The same fingering will be identical for the fourth, sixth and seventh positions. The example below is in the fourth position, and all you need to do is move to the other positions (mentioned above) to develop all the fingerings on the fretboard.

Semi-tone tone fingerings

All the rules just seen also apply for the semi-tone tone diminished scales. Basically, the fingerings are the same, even if you need to change the position of the tonics, as seen in the following graph.

The scale described above in the first position assumes the tonality of F, Ab, B and D. Within a diminished fingering there are two scales: a diminished tone semi-tone and a diminished semi-tone tone. We need to evaluate which of the two scales to use, with respect ot how the scales are set up. These semi-tone tone fingerings are found on the fretboard in the same positions as seen above.
We can now try the first exercises.