The diminished scales: exercises

After having seen in the previous page how the fingerings of some diminished scales are built, we can now work directly on these and other models.

Ex. #1

In the first exercise we will work on both diminished scales in C (which is equal to that of Eb, F# and A). In the first part of the exercise we will play the tone semi-tone diminished scale, while in the second part we will play the semi-tone tone diminished scale. As you can see we have simply moved the fingering by one fret to move from one scale to the other.

Ex. #2

Keeping the same theme, try to play in another position, staying always in the same scale. In this case we have the tone semi-tone diminished scale in C, and you can see that the fingering is the same. The position of the starting note changes to the sixth string, but the concept obviously remains the same.
Moving one semi-tone, the exercise again starts from the C note on the sixth string and you play the semi-tone tone diminished scale in C.

Ex. #3

This third exercise is the longest and most difficult. In fact we need to work with two diminished fingerings moving to the appropriate positions depending on the scale of interest. This must be done in order to master the fingerings, and as usual you should work slowly to learn this exercise well.
We saw in ex. #1 how to develop both the t-st and st-t diminished fingerings within the same scale, and in ex. #2 the same situation evaluated in another position. Now we want to create a geometric sequence of the fingerings, always playing from the preselected root in every position. Lets look at an example in C.
The same procedure seen in ex. #1, which used the 1st position for the t-st diminished scale and the 2nd position for the st-t diminished scale, is also used for the remaining three positions. Looking at the chart below you can understand the job at hand.

Try to study this as regularly as possible, playing ex. #1 in the positions seen in the chart above. Then perform the diminished t-st in the 1st position, then the diminished st-t in the 2nd position, then return to the t-st diminished in the 4th position, to the diminished st-t in the 5th position, and so on. Perform every scale starting from the selected root, which is C in the example, playing in an ascending direction up to the highest note of the position, then descending to the lowest to then return to the starting note, after which you can move to the next fingering.
Obviously in every fingering the C note will be present in different positions, this is why it is very important to know the fretboard perfectly. Usually someone who is studying the diminished scales already has a good knowledge of the fretboard: if this is not the case, I suggest that you at least study the major scales. In the following chart you will find all the positions for the diminished scales.

Work on this for a while before moving on to the following exercises, so that you are prepared both in technique and theory.