D Half Whole Diminished

The scale displayed with its numeric formula, notes and intervals.

Formula	Notes	Intervals
1	D	Unison
b2	Eb	Diminished second
#2	F	Augmented second
3	F#	Major third
b5	Ab	Diminished fifth
5	A	Perfect fifth
6	B	Major sixth
b7	C	Minor seventh

The scale formula can alternatively be written as 1 - b9 - #9 - 3 - #11 - 5 - 13 - b7.

The D Half Whole Diminished scale consists of eight notes. These can be described in intervals, as notes, or steps, on the guitar fingerboard and written as half, whole, half, whole, half, whole, half, whole (from the first note to the same note on the next octave).
This scale is also called D Dominant Diminished scale because of the last note, the minor seventh interval, that is present in dominant chords.
There are two scales known as “Diminished”, the other one is D Whole Half Diminished scale.

This scale is typically played over a dominant seventh chord (and alterations, such as 7-5, in particular) in some progression types in the style of jazz.
A feature of diminished scales is that they are symmetrical, which results in overlapping note relationships. The D Half Whole Diminished has the same notes as F Half Whole Diminished, Ab Half Whole Diminished and B Half Whole Diminished.

Chords are not very often built from Diminished scales, but some possible chords with matching notes are:

• Ddim7
• D7
• Gbm7b5
• Adim7
• Bdim7
• Cdim7

Although the tones in these chords correspond to the tones of the D Half Whole Diminished, creating progressions with these chords will seldom sound pleasant.

Start the audio and play along with your guitar! Use notes from the scale in the diagram above.

Normal tempo: Slow tempo: