Diminished 7 Arpeggios

Welcome to this lesson on the diminished seventh arpeggio. The diminished seventh arpeggios is much like the diminished arpeggio but it contains one extra note. The diminished seventh arpeggio has four notes and can be represented using intervals like this:

1, b3, b5, bb7

Notice the double flat seventh note present in the diminished 7 arpeggio. Also you should be aware that the diminished 7 arpeggio is made up from stacking minor thirds. For example in a C diminished seven arpeggio the distance between C and Eb is a minor third, the distance between Eb and Gb is a minor third and the distance between Gb and A is also a minor third.

C Diminished Seventh Arpeggio

C Eb Gb A

Db Diminished Seventh Arpeggio

Db E G Bb

D Diminished Seventh Arpeggio

D F Ab B

Eb Diminished Seventh Arpeggio

Eb Gb A C

E Diminished Seventh Arpeggio

E G Bb Db

F Diminished Seventh Arpeggio

F Ab B D

Gb Diminished Seventh Arpeggio

Gb A C Eb

G Diminished Seventh Arpeggio

G Bb Db E

Ab Diminished Seventh Arpeggio

Ab B D F

A Diminished Seventh Arpeggio

A C Eb Gb

Bb Diminished Seventh Arpeggio

Bb Db E G

B Diminished Seventh Arpeggio

B D F Ab

One really useful trick worth noting with diminished 7 arpeggios is that you can slide them up and down in intervals of a minor third. If you look at the C diminished arpeggio, Eb diminished arpeggio, Gb diminished arpeggio and the A diminished arpeggio you will see that they all contain the same notes. This is a really useful think to know when playing diminished 7 arpeggios. Guitarists would typically exploit this idea by sliding the diminished 7 pattern up the neck. There are only really three different diminished arpeggios if you think about it. The C diminished arpeggios, the Db diminished arpeggio and the D diminished arpeggio are all unique but after that all other arpeggios are just inversions of these three.

The diminished 7 arpeggio has a great many uses when improvising. Quite often you will hear a diminished 7 arpeggio being used to play over altered chords and jazz players have been doing this trick for years. We can use a Db diminished arpeggio over a C7b9 chord to bring out the sound of the b9 note. If we take a look at the notes of the Db diminished arpeggio then you will see that it contains the b9 (Db), third (E), fifth (G) and flat seventh (Bb) of the C7b9 chord. Diminished 7 arpeggios are therefore a great thing to play over 7b9 chords.

I hope you enjoyed this lesson on diminished seven arpeggios and that you can find a use for this wonderful sound in your jazz playing.