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Home › Hiro Honshuku's Jazz Theory › How to run a cool improvisation on a diminished chord™

Theoretically correct scale

Here is an except from Someday My Prince Will Come, bar 9 - 12:

The Db diminished 7th chord appears as a tonal functioning diminished chord, bIII diminished 7th, that is, analyzed as passing from III-7 to II-7. The non chord tones of the tonal functioning diminish chord are determined by the Key of the Moment, B flat, in this case.

The theoretically correct scale will be as follow:

Note that parenthesized numbers indicate avoid notes.

A lot of double-flats. As we discussed in the Workbook, we can respell the Db diminished scale to the C# diminished scale for conveniences. After all, theoretical correctness is not required when you are on stage and blowing hard.

Note that parenthesized numbers indicate avoid notes.