E Whole Half Diminished

E Whole Half Diminished scale for guitar.
The E Whole Half Diminished is a eight-note scale. Colored circles mark the tones in the diagram (darker color highlighting the root notes).

E Whole Half Diminished 2 octaves

E Whole Half Diminished scale diagram

E Whole Half Diminished full fretboard

E Whole Half Diminished scale whole guitar neck diagram
Notes: E - F# - G - A - Bb - B# - C# - D# Intervals: 2 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 1 Type: Octatonic, Symmetric

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

Formula Notes Intervals
1 E Unison
2 F# Major second
b3 G Minor third
4 A Perfect fourth
b5 Bb Diminished fifth
#5 B# Augmented fifth
6 C# Major sixth
7 D# Major seventh

The scale formula can alternatively be written as 1 - 9 - b3 - 11 - b5 - #5 - 13 - 7.

The E Whole Half Diminished scale consists of eight notes. The name is reflected by the notes, or steps, organized on the guitar fingerboard as whole, half, whole, half, whole, half, whole, half.
This scale is also called E Fully Diminished scale because it is constructed by a merge of diminished seventh chords.
There are two scales primarily known as “Diminished”, the other one is E Half Whole Diminished scale.
Another related symmetric scale is the E Whole Tone.

This scale is typically played over a diminished or half-diminished chord.
A feature of diminished scales is that they are symmetrical, which results in overlapping note relationships. The E Whole Half Diminished has the same notes as G Whole Half Diminished, Bb Whole Half Diminished and C# Whole Half Diminished.

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

  • Edim
  • Edim7
  • F#dim7
  • Gdim7
  • Abdim7
  • Bbdim7
  • Cdim7
  • C#dim7
  • D#dim7

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

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

Normal tempo:
Slow tempo: