Chord Colors

G 7b5 Diminished scale

357912

About the G 7b5 Diminished scale

G 7b5 Diminished is used for jazz solos over dominant chords with a flat fifth. Think of it as a dominant scale with a flat fifth and a chromatic seventh.

Its notes are G, A, B, C, D, E, F, and F. The formula is W W H H W W H H.

Also called Messiaen Mode 6.

In G 7b5 Diminished, the open strings sound A, G, and B. On guitar, the deepest G within reach is the 3rd fret of the low E string.

Positions

Playable shapes for this scale up the neck. Tap any note to hear it.

8-position system

8 four-fret boxes, one per scale degree, each a single hand position with almost no shifting. The jazz and classical way, from William Leavitt's Berklee method. This scale is symmetric, so the same box shape repeats up the neck.

Position 1fr 1
Position 2fr 2
Position 3fr 3
Position 4fr 5
Position 5fr 7
Position 6fr 8
Position 7fr 9
Position 8fr 11

Notes and intervals

1GGRoot
2AAMajor 2nd
3BBMajor 3rd
4CCPerfect 4th
5DbD♭Diminished 5th
6EbE♭Minor 6th
7FFMinor 7th
8F#F♯Major 7th
StepsW W H H W W H H
Semitones2-2-1-1-2-2-1-1
Degrees1 2 3 4 5 6 7 7

Shapes

Chromatic

CC♯D♭DD♯E♭EFF♯G♭GG♯A♭AA♯B♭B

Circle of Fifths

CGDAEBF♯G♭C♯D♭G♯A♭D♯E♭A♯B♭F

Related scales

7b5 Diminished in other keys

Embed this scale

Paste the snippet into a lesson page, a blog or a forum post. The card links back here.

G 7b5 Diminished scale on guitar shown as colored note dots
Chord Colors

There's so much more to explore

Explore on the go. Over 150 chord progressions, modal mixture, build your own progressions, and more!

Try web version iOS app
Chord Colors on iPhone showing chords, guitar voicings, progressions, and scales