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Diminished Licks Over an E7 Groove
by Christopher Sung

In this example, we play the ascending scale pretty much verbatim in mms. 1-2. Note that the diminished scale is a repeating pattern of alternating half steps (1 fret) and whole steps (2 frets). In general, the most common phrasing for the scale is to play the half step intervals as you come into the beat. Thus, in measure 1, coming into beat 2, the G moves to G#. Coming into beat 3, the A# moves to B. Coming into beat 4, the C# moves to D, and so on. In the last two beats of measure 3, we play the E, B, and the D to bring the whole line back "inside" after being a bit on the "outside" with all these diminished scale notes.

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