Jazz Scale - Symmetric Diminished/Octatonic Scale

Symmetric Diminished/Octatonic Scale

There are two types of symmetric diminished scales. These scales are sometimes called octatonic scales because they contain eight tones. They are based on a series of alternating half steps and whole steps. One type starts with a half-step (H-W-H-W-H-W-H-W), and one starts with a whole step (W-H-W-H-W-H-W-H).

Because of the repetition of the interval pattern after only two notes, each note in the scale can be a root in another symmetric diminished scale. For example, the C symmetric diminished scale of the half-step-first type, is composed with the same notes as the half-step-first type E♭ scale, and the whole-step-first type D♭ scale:

C symmetric (half, whole) diminished Play: C D♭ E♭ E F♯ G A B♭ C

E♭ symmetric (half, whole) diminished: E♭ E F♯ G A B♭ C D♭ E♭

D♭ symmetric (whole, half) diminished: D♭ E♭ E F♯ G A B♭ C D♭

All three are composed with the same group of notes: C D♭ E♭ E F♯ G A B♭ C D♭ E♭ E F♯ G A B♭

In fact, all symmetric diminished scales are composed with only three groups of notes.