Music Theory -The Diminished Scale

[@sonorstudio1]

We are blessed with the best teacher in the World ! Thanks again Rick !

[@mazely]

Actually Beato means "blessed".

[@Johnhasa1]

@@mazely cool!

[@mattiearchie1282]

60 seconds of watching your movie gives me months of practice pleasure and a hundred new ideas. Thank you for sharing all your knowledge! Everytime you make something difficult easy to understand.

[@anthonyruda2021]

Best explanation of what it is right off the bat. In the first few sentences you cut right to the heart of the matter. No one else on KZbin did this. They meandered and meandered and made it difficult. Thank you.

[@curtwehrmeyer124]

3 years later and this fantastic lesson pops up. This helps clear things up for sure. Never to late to say thank you Rick.

[@lpfigue]

I need ten years of guitar playing to digest all of this

[@Jmwilson1989j]

Great teacher! Love your content Rick! Always had a fascination with dark sounding chords,dissonance and just unusual awkward sounding chords and melodies. When I was at college I think I annoyed people because it would be all I played 😂. Then I discovered bands like opeth that use a lot of unusual chords and have a dark but beautiful sound. Then started to dabble into atonality and even serialism,I just loved how unconventional it was and that most music is made to resolve to be pleasant to the ear and this played against the hype. Music is meant to evoke a lot of emotion but it's always the same emotions,a lot of mainstream music won't make you feel uncomfortable and unsettled as these genres,although over time your ears come to accept it and this becomes normal to you and still uncomfortable to others. So what I'm saying is I appreciate learning more from someone who knows how to put it into context and what people don't realize is,diminished scales,augmented scales,chromatism,atonality etc doesn't always have to some uncomfortable either. If you use a tiny bit of it sparingly in a short passage of a normal song with regular chords it can sound beautiful too :) as long as you don't stay on the notes that are uncomfortable and just glide over them. Probably bored you to death reading this 😂 but yeah thank you for the inspiration and great content ☺️

[@audiophonic325]

OH MY GOD YES I KNEW you were gonna say opeth , they use a lot of melancholic chords and melodies which sounds hecking beautiful xkakjakdjqj

[@teaganp5011]

God you summed it up really well. Im definitely in the same boat as you. I love the tense and uncomfortable music that utilizes this theory. Blotted science, Mr bungle, king crimson, league of gentlemen, Buckethead, etc. Ever since I watched the original fantasia and saw the dinosaur scene where they play Stravinsky's rite of spring haha

[@henrybrowne7248]

I totally agree with you Jamie. I have this weird fixation with Weird chords, I call'em. For a rich dose of atonality, if you don't mind classical music, although it's only about 10 minutes, check out Nocturne Symphonique by Ferruccio Busoni. P.S. Also I like the old romantic stuff, just get tired of it after a while . .

[@CODENAMECRISISOFFICIAL]

The diminished scale is amazing for making psychotic and suspenseful melodies if you use the right instruments like for example a music box

[@MarkMcPeak5895]

Hey, instead of just giving rick accolades lets everyone who appreciates these fantastic videos support his work by buying his merch and his books at his website. I am going to buy the Beato book again in the new tab form just to support him. The musical training he offers is gold!

[@mazely]

You are right.

[@canismajoris6733]

nice try Rick

[@bearclaw007]

Rick Beato is a lovely human. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. 🙏

[@rapturejazz1477]

Thank God for the internet! I figured I would do a study on Diminished scales and where to use them, and when I searched KZbin, this video came up. Thanks for breaking the theory down for me. I'll have to watch this a few more times, but there were some real nuggets in here. For example, I had no idea that the names of the scales were tonic and dominant diminished...

[@isaacwilliams9919]

Sounds a lot like king crimson! Awesome

[@MikeNichols50]

Nice melodic ideas, especially the use of wider intervals! Thanks for the video!

[@mickeymortimer4407]

that etude's a thing of beauty

[@sreaves3240]

I had a little trouble following the first couple patterns until I realized the pattern repeats every 3 frets, while Rick keeps saying move it up 4 frets. It's a 4 fret pattern, but it repeats if you keep moving up 3 at a time. That is, start on 5, then start on 8, then start on 11, etc. The first finger goes to where the 4th finger was, so to speak.

[@juan_albatross]

Thank you Rick. This is a great opening door of creation. Awesome video.

[@CarolEderGuitarist]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge., I am so glad to have discovered you Rick!

[@electronicsanta8149]

All of Beato's vids are wicked awesome. Im thinking this video should have 10x the views. Listen to some of those licks. so cool and super melodic. Very nice. Thanks for the help !!!

[@slayerofgiants8721]

That was Awesome !!! Thank you Rick !!!

[@ezcast4003]

A LOT OF HUMM AND BUZZ FOR A MAN OF YOUR MEANS AND TASTES!! WHAT GIVES??!!

[@isaiahmarquez9717]

I just noticed. Congratulations on 3M subscribers. 🤙🏼

[@RichSaculus]

Thanks for this series of videos! The focus on diminished scales made me think of Ron Jarzombek, and his 12 tone row work with his proggiest metal band Blotted Science, you might want to check out his video for Oscillation Cycles.

[@mikepostdrums]

Yep.. I think these diminished sounds make me think of Ron Jarz because that's where I first heard it. Or at least heard it again, and again, and again.. haha!

[@mrbtapir]

also check out his band with his bro (I think), Spastic Ink.

[@baileyayyy5085]

You're extremely helpful and a great teacher, thank you rick

[@earthquakefarmer8052]

Thanks for all great content Rick, you're a great teacher!

[@jazzey69]

Thank you for this..Love all the diminished scale and modes....:-)Allen Holdsworth did a lot of this...Blessings to all..:-)

[@luableah7615]

1:00 - Sounds sooooo good!

[@shaZam9]

1:28 onward sounds so much like a Meshuggah solo.

[@josemolina959]

Thanks Rick! Outstanding!👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🎸🎼

[@abbasalikhan]

hi rick..once again brilliant video. can you please do one on the octatonic scale with reference to how its used in music specific to millitary in film scores.

[@michaelhansen8959]

Whole half / diminish are the octatonic scales.

[@RobRoss-onlyone]

Your work appreciated, RB. The only thing about dim scales is that they can sound really aseptic and devoid of feeling, if you get my drift. More like acrobatics than emotion. Worth knowing for sure, but only usable for microseconds. Thanks

[@RickBeato]

+Rob Ross Tell that to every 17th-21st century composer and jazz player. They are used by everyone from Charlie Parker to John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Bach, Beethoven,Mozart etc. it's one of the most widely used scales and arpeggios western music over the past 300 years. I could probably write up the few hundred paragraphs and the pieces of their used in. You must be a rock guy?

[@RobRoss-onlyone]

No offence meant, RB. Rock and almost everything else to either side of it, is fine by me. Jazz included. No prejudices that way. I like dims for distraction; a way of breaking the lineal approach, to be sure. But cutting right down to the bone...? Anyway, mate. Your work is appreciated. Thanks and all the best

[@RickBeato]

+Rob Ross Hey Rob it wasn't meant as anything other than an observation :) I didn't want you to dismiss one of our greatest tools as a composer or improviser. I've got to have my dom7b9 chords lol :) thanks and I get what you were saying.

[@RobRoss-onlyone]

Haha! Me too, Rick. My particular fave is probably the min6, mind you. Perhaps you have a session on that? Love Barry Harris's approach. Oh, and Steely Dan's Mu chords. Happy teaching!

[@GaryCainMusic]

Really enjoying your videos Rick - great job and thanks for sharing!

[@jimmyc5498]

Rick, you should really repost this stuff, it’s excellent for application and fingering options which can be confusing, perfect for jazz, metal, also country.. I guarantee people missed this topic. Thanks

[@88KeysMan]

Question: When you did the Bb tonic dim scale (9:43), you said it's W-H-W-H-W-H-W-H. Since we are using Bb as the example, what would you call the 7th degree since all the musical alphabet is used up? So it would be: Bb - C - Db - Eb - Fb - Gb - Abb - ??? - Bb

[@88KeysMan]

I love your lessons, BTW! They are awesome!!!!!

[@RickBeato]

+88KeysMan A. Diminished scales are strange

[@ryanrizner845]

You could spell the Abb as G natural; there is no way to spell it alphabetically, because there are eight notes in the scale

[@DanielVerberne]

Okay, I struggle with this stuff so I had to write it down and go over it many times. Can some verify if the following is correct or not? I'm trying to come up with the triads that Rick states at around 4:45: * We're talking about Dominant Diminished scale, also called the half-whole diminished, on account of its order of intevals from the starting note. (There is also the whole-half Diminished or "Fully Diminished" scale, which seems less commonly used) * The formula for the half-whole diminished is, half, whole, half, whole, half, whole, half, whole. * In key of A, that gives us a scale of : A, Bb, C, C#, Eb, E, F#, G, A * We construct chords from the 3rd notes of scales, which taken from above gives us A, C, Eb and F#. So that gets me that far, I now have a series of notes that match the roots of chords that Rick describes as being associated with this scale (A maj, A min, A Lydian, C maj, C minor, C Lydian, Eb etc etc) But how does he then get to major, minor and Lydian flavours of chords starting with those roots? I'm sorry for be the dumb one.

[@allantaylor420]

Jobim uses a lot the dominante b9 13 chord. Now I know where he got it from.

[@rallypojken]

Great lesson, thanks!

[@spencer_mynatt]

amazing lesson

[@leomorales1764]

so when can you play a diminished scale over a dominant? it always confuses me

[@peterstone5375]

Half tone - tone. :-) of course,

[@andreph1719]

whitekid345895 can you give an example? I’m confused

[@sharoonjohn3850]

You can play the dominant diminished scale (half-whole) over a 7th chord. For example, E Dominant Diminished scale (E F G G# Bb B C# D E) over an E7 chord.

[@Raybden]

Rick, great stuff. Do you have transcriptions of all those cool diminished runs? I want to add them to my practice routine. I don't believe they are in your KZbin Transcription book, which I am going to purchase anyway (I already have the Beato Book).

[@meluvcheese22]

Thank you for this video!

[@frankibio]

Hi Rick. Just a question: Would the new standard tuning proposed by Robert Fripp make a lot easier to play those fourths and 7ths of the diminished scale?

[@johndecicco]

Here's a chord for our times: Covi/D

[@nicolaslg1421]

That's already a thing. Search "covid fugue".

[@ezcast4003]

Thank the Dems for that one!! 🤬

[@taytech8502]

Covi/D add9 to give a lil spice to it.

[@skullkrusher4418]

@@ezcast4003 For COVID?

[@MomLAU]

This is corn/E. ;)

[@yogisutarja]

Terima kasih master Rick, video2 mu sangat menginspirasi cara bermusik saya

[@aaronpedersen1973]

These sound like every murder scene in Matlock. Love it.

[@greenman9123]

Thanks for all the help man ! Hello from mash!

[@J.Hermansson]

I recognise that from a pink panther movie, when Peter runs in through a room an falls out a window and in to a river. There is an opera singer doing that first thing you played on the keyboard.

[@markmcmyn8967]

Was looking for some outside sounds. Just started to learn diminished scales.I thought it might somehow be applied to different chords other than dominant 7.Larry Carlton and Robben Ford seem to prefer a half step whole step diminished scale outline over a whole step half step sequence.Whats the difference?

[@joedragich]

Hey Rick (or anyone else): My friend played a scale that I cannot find anywhere, curious if anyone knows what it is. It's essentially a Dominant Diminished scale with a natural 4 and no 6 (1 b2 b3 3 4 5 b7). Anyone?!

[@kenkinnally6144]

This is the scale of which men must not speak! It is forbidden by Kahlua. But it's okay by Johnnie Walker.

[@ChrisAllenCombs]

beautiful. thanks for this!

[@TheSoulOfGenius]

Nick, you should REALLY do a video on Scriabins tonal language.

[@charlieweston2292]

Ah I used to be scared of this scale🙈 I called it the Paranoia scale

[@cassottoproduction4787]

😂

[@ulusot]

What are the exact tones of the poly-chord at 13:10? Jim :-)

[@LuisSilva-rk1ye]

Just bought the Beato book..Amazing!!!!!..Thanks for sharing all this information. Your the best teacher!!!!

[@ChromaticHarp]

You’re

[@merttalay9702]

isn t sound like king crimson level five or some other songs as well

[@isaacwilliams9919]

Fracture

[@tonymarlow6975]

Hello Rick: I am from Rochester also. What area were you raised.

[@bunobeatz5737]

Sometimes I wish I wasn’t a self taught pianist. I’m a great pianist but music theory is a bitch to learn by yourself.

[@benjiusofficial]

It's alot easier when you have resources like Rick available, for sure.

[@zenncatt]

Thank you for making this excellent video. By Lydian, do you mean Major #4 arpeggio? So you're adding a raised 4th in the major arpeggio? Otherwise, wouldn't it just be a Major 7th arpeggio - IE; Root - Major 3rd - Perfect 5th - Major 7th? Thank you.

[@RickBeato]

Hi zenncatt- The Lydian Arpeggio is 1 #4 5 Thanks! Rick

[@zenncatt]

Ah, got it; triad with a #4. Very informative videos. Vast knowledge. Thank you Mr. Beato!

[@RickBeato]

You are very welcome!

[@jstilesband47]

I watched the robben ford masterclass vid on this scale and he starts with the semitone. I realized that it’s a half step down from where you start but I found it confusing to visualize the pattern. Does it matter where you start other than for sake of where the tonic is?

[@moonshark5620]

you kick butt sir. 👍

[@cakecakes31]

I love the Octatonic so much, great vid!

[@dennislukas1736]

Just great!

[@tonyrozza5638]

Thank you!

[@TomRivieremusic]

Love it !

[@diogenessbeats7421]

Sir. Do you know what scales usuallay used in G-Funk Hip-hop?

[@WT_Neptune]

That sounds sick tbh

[@jackelshaw]

So using those 8 dim 7 arpeggio over one chord, could i also use 8 different dim7 chords (shapes i guess) over one chord?

[@diankardiana8451]

thank u mr

[@orangenoise8350]

Hey rick have you heard of shawn lane. I'm curious because it seems nobody talks about him

[@2giantmonsters]

Is this what Opeth used at the end of Moon Above Sun Below?

[@ewqdsacxz765]

2:25. If some diminished licks are hard to play on your guitar, there's a simple solution: tune your guitar in such a way that each open-string tone is separated by a tritone interval. For example: E5 A#4 E4 A#3 E3 A#2 It also makes it very easy to play up and down a diminished scale, whether dominant or tonic. 6 5 3 2 0 5 3 2 0 5 3 2 0 5 3 2 0 5 3 2 0 5 3 2 0

[@KamilKisiel]

Okay but that just makes everything else harder to play :)

[@ewqdsacxz765]

@@KamilKisiel Lol, I intended this solution to be used only for songs played entirely in this scale. Once the song is over, one can revert back to standard tuning or whatever tuning one needs.

[@KamilKisiel]

@@ewqdsacxz765 usually you wouldn't play a whole song using the diminished scale though

[@ewqdsacxz765]

@@KamilKisiel Maybe that depends on the genre. It seems pretty popular in some styles of extreme metal. Just the other day, I was looking at the notation for "Death Walking Terror," this song by Cannibal Corpse, and I noticed that every riff in the song fit pretty neatly in the diminished scale (specifically diminished dominant, i.e. with the minor second degree), with just a few chromatic deviations here and there. I wouldn't doubt that one could also find a couple of Slayer songs that would fit the bill.

[@ewqdsacxz765]

​@@KamilKisiel I have found another one! "Kafir" by Nile.

[@seanbeeson3853]

Question on the etude ... Did you write that in midi ? or actually play it ? Very cool either way :) yummy riffs

[@strahinjaristic6544]

thank you!

[@willhambly5249]

What's the chord underneath that in the beginning around 1:30?

[@willhambly5249]

Does not sounds like flat 5, and curious what voicing is used (I understand some kind of synth sound).

[@Metalbass10000]

Rick, thank you, I just recently discovered your videos and really like the content. Your videos seem to be right at the level I need to be learning music theory to grow and challenge myself. Please forgive me if you’ve covered this already, but is there a way to get transcriptions or, for my less accomplished site reading students the, I don’t really like saying the word, tablature, of these lessons individually, or are they all contained in one larger volume?

[@MegaMandrake99]

Beato. I have question. I knew this kick ads guitar player. Everyone thought he was mentally incarcerated by the diminished skull. He said he could play ANY style Jazz,Rock, Country, Bluegrass,Swahili folk...Etc. all with diminished. I missed my lesson that day... could you apply this as aforementioned. Thanks

[@Arycke]

What the actual frick was that? :o

[@floydburney6060]

.....When you do these Hans Zimmer/Miles Davis chord progression segments used for Tom Clancy movie scores....You should bring in your son Dylan for comic relief.

[@tommantle532]

i love these

[@RickBeato]

Thanks Tom!!

[@jdsevolvingideas]

Rick Beato after you show us the scale, you show us your first repeating riff. You use a more extended reach on the e, b, and g strings, rather than keeping your fingers closer and going down to the d string to complete the riff. Can you explain why you would choose to use less strings and instead go with a wider reach?

[@jharsch3453]

Good stuff, I've been brushing up hardcore on Jazz styles and have been using a lot of the more advanced theory with my playing. I eventually plan to take this knowledge to bluegrass and folk, maybe something on the banjo

[@iamrichlol]

Came here after hearing mishas solo in the new periphery song - Blood Eagle

[@kristopherarvey320]

Diminished Scale reminds of The Simpsons's theme song

[@chadallen7943]

Nice catch

[@jeffnichter9805]

that's Lydian

[@acialist]

*Hears NPR theme in the distance*

[@LagunaPadre361]

"today on star-date"

[@redpimpletonthesimpleton8812]

On the text you said major, minor and sus4 chords but then you said major, minor, and Lydian chords. Thennnn you said the Lydian chord was a, d# and e… kinda lost me there.. first, why have I not heard of the Lydian chord yet? Is it widely recognized and if so what sort of role does it normally play? It seems like you are also calling it a sus 4 chord.. do you mean because it would be the sus4 of the Major 1 in a Lydian mode? It’s just odd man. I try looking this up and nowhere am I seeing anyone who refers to Lydian as a specific chord

[@phillipclarke8871]

Interesting but why the distortion nad the organ?

[@Charlie-e1v]

I don't like to call it the "Diminished" scale at risk of sounding condescending or judgmental. It’s not the best attitude to adopt in this age of advanced education and enlightenment. I instead like to call it “the scale with the most opportunity” recognizing all that can be added to soothe the senses. Rock on.

[@jackiechon5625]

amazing job ! but you omit the +9 ? why ?

[@chadallen7943]

The Devils note

[@richf8972]

Your amazing!

[@ChromaticHarp]

Youre

[@spartan7769]

Awesome

[@dangidelta]

Watched the whole video...Didn't understand anything 😭if possible, please teach it like you're teaching it to a kid, Rick

[@dandrews2850]

Damn! I understand!

[@RH-xs8gz]

Does anyone know if the intro to Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson is a diminished scale?

[@nealtucker8029]

its mostly in Em but there is one Bb in the intro and thats the b5 of Em

[@ThePi314Man]

Is that locrian i hear?

[@ShirubaGin]

Locrian is H-W-W-H-W-W-W

[@tilleykomorny9005]

you have incredible videos but you fly through concepts so quickly that i can’t understand any of it.

[@leeDs718]

put in slow motion.

[@ExtraLarge3133]

Tabs Rick!

[@marselmusic]

I played the lick then move it up 4 frets... *failure*

[@seri1897]

Marsel Music after skipping 4frets ,i can see half whole dim scale

[@christophermitchum6829]

Kinda bent... but it ain't breaking...🤪

[@reverentcavaliers7579]

For the record... A Lydian over Bb is a naughty, dissonant, born in Zappa's kitchen, hoop jumper chord. Just sayin'.

[@MikeNichols50]

Thanks for the info...the Eb from the Lydian chord corresponds to the 11th [or 4th] in Bb...

[@ericgamliel8500]

Is it possible to be a music nerd? LOL!

[@andyisdead]

yes it is

[@murrayrowley2900]

Is Larry Carlton into this?.... I keep hearing his sound here.

[@thefakengx3839]

Rick and morty more like Rick and Marty lol 😂😂🤣

[@AlexVinchenzo]

Marty Friedman

[@bunobeatz5737]

What is a tonic ?? Anybody want to help me?

[@BarrySahagian]

The root is 1st degree of a scale or chord C scale (root is c) C chord (Root is C)