Ideas on Fingering for Diminished Scales

[JJJ2008]

Just adding information to the existing idea of Playing diminished
scales.
For completeness, I worked out several fingerings and some ideas about
this. Feel free to add to the depth of knowledge.

Diminished scales for RH
Principles to start with:
-Place 3 on highest black note
-Play descending
-Bracketed fingers are optional depending on taste
-I am tending to prefer not to use the 4 as it limits your flexibility
to go upwards from that note if you need to not continue playing the
scale.
-Only the 3 families of diminished have been shown - some fingerings
will obviously be better for different start notes.

C : C D Eb F Gb Ab A B C
123 123 12
313 123 12
234 123 41

Db : Db Eb E F# G A Bb C
23 12(3) 123 1
23 12 312(3) 1

D : D E F G Ab Bb B Db
123 123 12(3)
3 12(3) 123 12
34 1234 12

[RVG]

JJJ2008 a �crit :

I'd write C# rather than Db. It's the major 7th. ;-)

> 123 123 12(3)
> 3 12(3) 123 12
> 34 1234 12

Since the diminished scale tends to resolve on the lower half-tone, you
may also try to play, for example, the scale of Db diminished with the
same fingering as C major.

This said you're speaking of the octatonic or half-whole scale (which is
played on semi-diminished chords like Em7b5), not the real diminished
scale, or whole-half diminished scale that contains a diminished second
(and is played on diminished chords like Dbdim).

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[JJJ2008]

the fingerings I've mentioned will be applicable to different start
notes, so I am imagining Whole-half diminished scales will be one step
away from the half-whole scales mentioned. I am simply trying to
simplify diminished scales for fingering purposes to 3 scales which
would cover all the major h-w, w-h diminished equivalents.
I agree that the C# should be used but I wasn't too sure about the
enharmonic correctness of this.

[RVG]

JJJ2008 a �crit :

> the fingerings I've mentioned will be applicable to different start
> notes, so I am imagining Whole-half diminished scales will be one step
> away from the half-whole scales mentioned. I am simply trying to
> simplify diminished scales for fingering purposes to 3 scales which
> would cover all the major h-w, w-h diminished equivalents.

This method seems interesting:
http://www.scottdstrader.com/blog/ether_archives/000527.html

> I agree that the C# should be used but I wasn't too sure about the
> enharmonic correctness of this.

Well, you only write a "flat octave" in the rare case of some exotic
modes that don't repeat at eh octave. Otherwise, it's an altered 7th.
For the same reason, it's sometimes wise to write VII# (like B# in a
scale of C) instead of I or the octave to indicate a progression.